T“\  • 

-Cr. 

\ 

BR  157  . B7 

Brown,  Charles  Reynolds, 
1862-1950. 

The  larger  faith 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/largerfaithOObrow 


THE  LARGER  FAITH 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 


The  Honor  of  the  Church 
The  Modern  Man’s  Religion 
The  Main  Points 
The  Master’s  Way 

The  Story  Books  of  the  Early  Hebrews 
The  Strange  Ways  of  God 
Who  Is  Jesus  Christ? 


/ 


BY 


CHARLES  R.  BROWN 


THE  LARGER  F 


Dean  of  the  Divinity  School 
Yale  University 


THE  PILGRIM  PRESS 


BOSTON 


CHICAGO 


Copyright,  1923 
By  SIDNEY  A.  WESTON 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 

THE  JORDAN  &  MORE  PRESS 


BOSTON 


CONTENTS 


The  Point  of  View .  3 

I.  The  Baptist  Church . 11 

II.  The  Congregational  Church  .  .  29 

III.  The  Church  of  the  Disciples  .  .  49 

IV.  The  Episcopal  Church . 67 

V.  The  Lutheran  Church  ....  89 

VI.  The  Methodist  Church  ....  105 

VII.  The  Presbyterian  Church  .  .  .  123 

VIII.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  .  .  141 

IX.  The  Unitarian  Church  ....  163 

X.  “  The  Unity  of  the  Spirit  ”  .  .  .  181 

Appendix . 191 


THE  POINT  OF  VIEW 


\ 


The  Point  of  View 

This  modest  little  volume  is  not  an  attempt  at  a 
Church  History,  nor  is  it  a  study  in  comparative 
sectarianism.  It  is  an  appreciation.  It  was  written 
primarily  for  young  people  who  are  not  firmly  set 
in  their  own  denominational  preferences  —  they 
want  to  know  the  special  features  in  the  work  of  the 
various  sections  of  the  Universal  Church.  It  was 
written  in  the  interest  of  that  better  understanding 
and  more  intelligent  good  will  among  the  many 
branches  of  the  Church  of  Christ  which  will  aid  in 
replacing  the  spirit  of  rivalry  and  antagonism  with 
the  spirit  of  cooperation  for  the  gaining  of  those 
ends  which  belong  to  all  who  follow  the  Master. 

Our  total  Christianity  is  a  very  large  affair. 
“  Like  a  mighty  army  moves  the  Church  of  God.” 
It  is  not  all  Infantry  nor  all  Artillery  nor  all  Cavalry 
nor  all  Air  Service  nor  all  Ambulance  Corps.  Each 
one  of  these  arms  of  a  common  service  has  its  own 
particular  field  of  usefulness,  yet  the  army  is  one. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  a  large 
and  diversified  movement  for  human  betterment, 
it  is  good  for  every  man,  now  and  then,  to  get  out 
of  his  own  special  corner  of  the  field  and  take  a 
look  at  the  army  as  a  whole.  It  is  good  for  him  to 
feel  something  of  the  swing  and  movement  of  these 

3 


The  Larger  Faith 


far-flung,  variously  formulated  efforts  to  have 
righteousness  bear  rule.  It  will  lift  him  out  of  that 
pettiness  and  meagerness  into  which  the  best  of 
men  fall  at  times  and  bestow  upon  him  something 
of  the  breadth  and  bigness,  something  of  the  sym¬ 
pathy  and  catholicity  of  spirit  which  belong  to 
joyous  citizenship  in  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

It  is  well  for  any  individual  Christian  occasionally 
to  take  some  other  man’s  gait.  There  are  bodies 
of  Christians  which  move  habitually  in  a  regular 
and  dignified  walk  —  the  Presbyterians  for  example 
in  the  general  quality  of  their  church  life  have 
learned  to  “  walk  and  not  faint.”  There  are  others 
who  occasionally  strike  a  good  round  trot,  others 
less  conventional  in  their  methods  are  accustomed 
to  pace,  while  some  zealous  people  even  break  into 
a  splendid  gallop. 

Well  and  good!  If  they  are  only  headed  right, 
God  be  praised  for  this  variety  of  movement! 
And  for  the  man  who  on  the  whole  strongly  prefers 
his  own  particular  gait,  it  is  desirable  that  for  an 
hour  he  should  catch  some  other  man’s  mood  and 
movement  —  he  will  come  back  to  his  own  place 
in  the  procession,  a  more  limber,  a  more  likable  and 
a  more  useful  Christian. 

The  purpose  of  these  chapters  is  not  in  any  sense 
controversial.  If  I  could  not  find  anything  to 
write  about  except  to  make  a  series  of  ill-natured 
attacks  upon  my  fellow  Christians  in  those  other 
camps,  I  should  certainly  lay  down  my  pen  at  once. 

4 


The  Point  of  View 


There  are  better  uses  for  paper  and  ink  than  to 
employ  them  in  sectarian  controversy.  The  devil 
is  too  much  in  evidence  these  days  for  Christians  to 
be  fighting  each  other  when  they  might  be  fighting 
him. 

The  newspapers  make  much  oftentimes  of  “  the 
divisions  of  Christendom,”  but  they  know  not  what 
they  say.  The  divisions  on  the  face  of  them  are 
many,  too  many,  but  the  agreements  are  more 
numerous  and  ever  so  much  more  significant.  The 
deeper  meaning  of  the  divisions  themselves  lies 
in  the  fact  that  each  group  of  Christian's,  which  has 
any  sort  of  right  to  be,  has  made  some  special  and 
distinctive  contribution  to  “The  Larger  Faith.” 

There  are  narrow-minded  bigots  and  sectarians 
who  do  not  view  the  matter  in  this  way.  They  are 
so  taken  up  with  the  beauties  of  their  own  little 
cob-houses  of  doctrine,  polity  and  ritual  that  they 
have  no  admiration  left  for  anything  outside.  They 
have  no  real  appreciation  of  the  great  cathedral¬ 
like  structure  of  Christian  faith  and  worship  and 
service,  with  its  nave  and  choir,  its  added  transepts 
and  out-reaching  chapels,  representing  a  long  and 
varied  process  of  growth. 

But  we  may  rejoice  to  believe  that  there  are  not 
many  of  these  precious  bigots  left  and  they  do  not 
count  for  much  even  in  their  own  sects.  The 
theology,  the  polity  and  the  worship  of  any  one 
branch  of  the  total  Church  are  not  sufficiently 
roomy  to  include  all  the  facts  of  human  nature, 

5 


The  Larger  Faith 


to  say  nothing  of  drawing  a  complete  circle  around 
the  divine  love.  In  the  chapters  which  follow  I 
wish  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  that  larger  Chris¬ 
tianity  which  may  well  command  the  esteem  and 
the  allegiance  of  all  our  hearts. 

I  shall  consider  briefly  nine  of  the  leading 
branches  of  the  Christian  Church  in  this  country, 
the  Baptist,  the  Congregational,  the  Disciples,  the 
Episcopal,  the  Lutheran,  the  Methodist,  the 
Presbyterian,  the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Uni¬ 
tarian  Churches.  I  have  simply  arranged  them  in 
alphabetical  order  without  any  attempt  to  catalogue 
them  in  chronological  fashion  or  with  reference  to 
their  respective  importance. 

There  are  other  branches  of  the  Church  not 
named  here  which  would  naturally  come  in  for 
sympathetic  consideration.  The  Reformed  Church 
and  the  United  Brethren  have  had  an  important 
and  an  honorable  part  in  the  religious  development 
of  America.  But  the  general  method  and  contribu¬ 
tion  of  the  Reformed  Churches  have  been  so  similar 
to  those  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the 
methods  and  contributions  of  the  United  Brethren 
so  like  those  of  the  Methodists,  that  I  have  not 
here  undertaken  the  separate  treatment  of  either 
one.  The  Universalist  Church  rendered  a  vital 
service  in  modifying  a  harsh  and  arbitrary  doctrine 
of  future  retribution  (so  widely  held  at  the  time  the 
protest  was  made)  and  in  giving  courage  to  those 
who  would  cherish  “  the  larger  hope,”  but  again  its 

6 


The  Point  of  View 


point  of  view  and  prevailing  spirit  have  been  closely 
akin  to  those  of  the  Unitarian  Church.  In  any 
exhaustive  account  of  the  religious  forces  of  the 
nation,  there  are  still  other  churches  which  would 
demand  thoughtful  consideration,  but  I  have 
selected  the  nine  which  are  named  above,  because 
they  are  the  best  known  and  because  in  my  judg¬ 
ment  each  one  has  made  some  distinctive  contribu¬ 
tion  to  “  The  Larger  Faith.” 

If  we  can  undertake  this  excursion  through  these 
varied  fields  of  Christian  effort  in  the  spirit  of 
intellectual  hospitality,  we  shall  bring  back,  I 
trust,  stirrings  of  sympathy,  fairer  judgments  and 
refreshing  outlooks  upon  other  quarters  of  the 
infinite  heaven  of  religious  reality  which  will 
broaden  and  inspire  us  for  a  finer,  fuller  service 
of  our  common  Lord. 


7 


THE  BAPTIST  CHURCH 


. 

1  * 


t 


/ 


Chapter  I 


The  Baptist  Church 

The  name  “  Baptist  ”  as  applied  to  a  particular 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church  dates  back  to  about 
the  year  1664.  It  was  used  to  designate  a  certain 
body  of  Christians  as  indicating  the  peculiar  empha¬ 
sis  they  laid  upon  the  mode  and  upon  the  proper 
subjects  of  baptism.  They  insisted  that  the  literal 
meaning  of  the  Greek  word  Baptizo  is  “to  dip,” 
and  that  inasmuch  as  baptism  by  the  immersion  of 
the  whole  body  in  water  was  common:,  if  not  uni¬ 
versal,  in  Christ’s  day,  this  mode  is  the  one  accept¬ 
able  mode  of  administering  that  sacrament.  They 
also  insisted  that  tji'e  church  should  be  composed 
only  of  regenerate  believers;  and  that  only  people 
sufficiently  mature  to  make  conscious  acceptance 
of  Christ  as  their  Saviour  could  therefore  be  rightly 
admitted  to  the  church  through  the  ordinance  of 
baptism.  They  did  not  practice  the  baptism  of 
infants  according  to  the  usage  of  the  larger  part  of 
the  Church  of  Christ. 

I  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  either  of  these  claims. 
I  feel,  as  the  Baptists  themselves  feel,  that  baptism 
with  water  is  of  little  importance  as  compared  with 
the  baptism  of  the  Spirit.  It  was  John  the  Baptist 
himself  who  said,  “  I  indeed  baptize  you  with 
water”  —  that  was  all  he  could  do  —  “but  One 
cometh  after  me,  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I 

ii 


The  Larger  Faith 


am  not  worthy  to  bear,  He  shall  baptize  you  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.”  I  crave  for  myself, 
as  all  Christians  do,  a  fuller  baptism  of  the  Spirit 
that  was  in  Him. 

There  are  thousands  of  people,  both  in  the  Bap¬ 
tist  Church  and  out  of  it,  who  believe  as  Dean 
Stanley  did  that  in  the  first  century  the  mode  of 
baptism  which  was  common  if  not  universal  may 
have  been  by  immersion ;  and  they  believe 
also  that  the  departure  from  that  mode,  which 
occurred  very  early  and  which  has  come  to  prevail 
so  widely,  may  represent  for  colder  regions  where 
different  styles  of  dress  obtain,  “  the  triumph  of 
convenience  and  good  taste  over  a  literal  attach¬ 
ment  to  ancient  custom.”  I  am  not  undertaking, 
however,  to  argue  the  differing  claims  as  to  the  mode 
or  the  subjects  of  baptism,  but  rather  to  indicate 
the  distinctive  contribution  made  by  each  body  of 
Christians  to  our  total  Christianity. 

I 

The  special  contribution  of  the  Baptist  Church 
seems  to  me  to  lie  in  three  directions:  —  first,  in 
their  intense  loyalty  to  personal  conviction.  Our 
good  friends  in  the  Baptist  Church  believe  that 
Jesus  Christ  was  baptized  by  immersion  in  the 
river  Jordan.  They  believe  that  the  early  Chris¬ 
tians  were  thus  baptized  by  the  apostles.  Many 
of  them  regard  it  as  essential  even  in  this  far-off 
land  and  time,  that  every  believing  Christian  should 

12 


The  Baptist  Church 


be  baptized  in  the  same  way.  Because  of  their 
loyalty  to  this  conviction  they  stand  ready  to  make 
the  necessary  sacrifices  in  maintaining  that  mode. 

This  loyalty  to  conviction  becomes  oftentimes  a 
serious  handicap.  In  a  warm  country  like  Palestine 
where  many  of  the  people  lived  near  running 
streams,  where  the  loose  outer  garments  could  be 
readily  laid  aside  without  unseemliness,  the  custom 
of  immersion  was  one  thing.  In  colder  countries 
where  water  must  be  artificially  heated  in  tanks 
or  where  people  in  the  country  must  go  to  ponds 
or  to  streams  and  in  the  winter  season  cut  holes 
through  the  ice  in  order  to  perform  this  rite  in  that 
way,  and  where  the  style  of  dress  is  such  as  to 
involve  much  inconvenience  and  discomfort,  im¬ 
mersion  is  quite  another  thing.  “  Well  and  good,” 
the  Baptists  say —  “  even  though  we  find  ourselves 
in  many  cases  compelled  to  overcome  a  measure  of 
reluctance  on  the  part  of  thousands  of  people  to 
that  mode  of  baptism,  we  believe  it  to  be  right  and 
we  gladly  accept  that  difficulty.” 

However  the  rest  of  the  Christian  world  may 
differ  with  them  as  to  the  importance  of  that 
particular  mode  of  baptism,  we  cannot  but  admire 
their  intense  loyalty  to  conviction.  I  have  been 
present  at  baptisms  in  country  places  where  the 
candidates  were  driven  several  miles  from  their 
homes  in  the  coldest  weather,  where  a  hole  had 
been  cut  through  the  ice  and  where  believers  were 
immersed  in  freezing  water  and  were  then  com- 

13 


The  Larger  Faith 


pelled  to  drive  several  miles  to  the  nearest  house  to 
secure  a  change  of  clothing.  The  physical  discom¬ 
fort  was  accepted  as  a  matter  of  course  in  no  spirit 
of  complaint  but  as  an  opportunity  for  bearing 
witness  to  their  faith  in  Christ. 

Let  that  same  loyalty  to  conviction,  that  same 
tenacity  of  purpose,  extend  to  matters  more  vital 
than  the  mode  of  baptism,  as  indeed  it  has  in  large 
measure  extended  among  the  Christians  of  that 
faith,  and  one  can  see  what  a  power  for  good  it  may 
become!  Let  loyalty  to  conviction  be  directed 
to  the  consecration  of  one’s  powers  to  Christian 
service,  to  the  devotion  of  one’s  means  to  benevo¬ 
lence  and  to  the  development  of  a  sincere  attach¬ 
ment  to  the  church  of  one’s  choice,  and  it  becomes 
at  once  a  mighty  influence  for  good! 

The  Baptists  emphasize  the  sacredness  of  the 
individual  conscience.  This  lies  at  the  root  of  their 
refusal  to  baptize  children.  The  helpless  child  must 
not  be  carried  into  the  church  and  there  baptized 
by  sprinkling  (or  by  immersion,  for  that  matter, 
which  would  equally  offend  their  sense  of  right). 
We  must  wait  until  the  conscious  moral  life  of 
this  child  has  taken  shape  and  has  made  its  own 
choice  as  to  the  mode  of  baptism,  until  it  has  made 
a  personal  decision  as  to  the  whole  question  of 
Christian  worship  and  service.  “  Everyone  of  us 
shall  give  an  account  of  himself  to  God,”  is  a 
favorite  text  with  the  Baptists,  and  their  very 
insistence  upon  the  right  and  obligation  of  individ- 

14 


The  Baptist  Church 


ual  judgment  in  all  matters  of  religion  has  helped 
to  develop  that  intense  loyalty  to  personal  convic¬ 
tion.  It  has  been  a  great  asset  to  the  cause  of 
democracy  throughout  the  world  —  the  right  of 
every  man  to  think  for  himself  and  decide  for 
himself  upon  his  course  of  action,  ready  at  whatever 
cost  to  obey  the  voice  of  conscience  within  his  own 
breast. 


II 

The  second  contribution  may  be  found  in  the 
simplicity  of  their  creed.  For  more  than  a  century 
the  Baptists  had  no  formulated  creed.  They  sim¬ 
ply  referred  believers  to  the  Bible  as  the  only 
standard  of  faith  and  conduct.  Even  now  they 
have  no  authoritative  creed  statements  or  symbols. 
What  is  known  as  the  11  New  Hampshire  Confes¬ 
sion  of  Faith  ”  is  widely  published  throughout  the 
North,  and  another  known  as  the  “  Philadelphia 
Confession  of  Faith  ”  is  current  through  the 
South.  But  these  statements  are  for  instruction 
rather  than  for  enforcement.  They  are  not  binding 
in  the  sense  fhat  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  or  the  Twenty-five  Articles  of  the 
Methodist  Church  or  the  Westminster  Confession 
in  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  binding  upon  the 
teachers  of  religion  in  these  bodies.  The  creed  of 
the  Baptists  is  the  Bible,  and  they  have  not  under¬ 
taken  to  formulate  its  teachings  in  any  authorita¬ 
tive  creed  statements. 


15 


The  Larger  Faith 


Two  of  the  points  which  come  in  for  special 
emphasis  in  this  church  are  indicated  in  one  of 
their  favorite  texts — “  He  that  believe th  and  is 
baptized  shall  be  saved.”  He  that  believes,  not 
certain  creed  statements  contained  in  the  Thirty- 
nine  Articles  or  in  the  Westminster  Confession; 
he  that  believes  on  Christ,  in  His  gospel,  in  His 
purposes  for  the  world,  and  is  ready  to  bear  witness 
to  that  belief  in  baptism,  shall  be  saved.  The 
inner  attitude  of  the  moral  nature  toward  Christ 
and  the  open  confession  of  that  attitude  in  baptism 
are  the  two  essentials  for  salvation.  As  compared 
with  the  elaborate  dogmas  of  some  branches  of  the 
Christian  Church,  there  is  among  the  Baptists 
great  simplicity  of  creed. 

The  working  out  of  this  principle  can  be  seen  in 
such  an  institution  as  the  University  of  Chicago. 
It  is  one  of  the  very  few  great  Universities  (aside 
from  the  Universities  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church)  which  is  under  denominational  control. 
It  is  a  Baptist  institution.  It  was  founded  and 
handsomely  endowed  by  a  well-known  Baptist 
layman,  Mr.  John  D.  Rockefeller.  Until  very 
recently  it  was  required  that  its  President  should 
be  a  member  of  the  Baptist  Church  and  it  still 
requires  that  three-fifths  of  the  members  of  its 
governing  Board  shall  be  members  of  that 
communion.  But  when  we  come  to  its  various 
Faculties,  including  the  Faculty  of  the  Divinity 
School,  we  find  a  wide  range  of  church  affiliations 

16 


The  Baptist  Church 

allowed  and  a  great  variety  of  theological  beliefs 
sincerely  cherished  and  openly  taught.  There  is  no 
creed  but  the  Bible  and  the  interpretation  of  the 
Bible  according  to  each  man’s  understanding  of  it 
leaves  room  for  a  large  amount  of  personal  liberty. 

The  very  simplicity  and  comprehensiveness  of 
this  basis  has  given  the  Baptist  Church  a  certain 
facility  in  securing  and  utilizing  men  of  striking 
personality  and  of  unconventional  methods  as 
ministers  of  their  faith.  Take  two  men,  well  known 
to  our  own  generation,  —  one  on  this  side  of  the 
water  and  one  on  that  —  Charles  H.  Spurgeon  of 
London,  and  Russell  H.  Conwell  of  Philadelphia, 
both  of  them  famous  Baptist  preachers. 

Spurgeon  preached  to  more  people  than  any  other 
man  of  the  Nineteenth  Century.  He  preached  to 
seven  thousand  of  them  Sunday  after  Sunday  in 
his  own  Tabernacle  in  South  London.  On  the 
“  Day  of  Humiliation  ”  at  the  time  of  the  Indian 
Mutiny  he  preached  in  Crystal  Palace  to  twenty- 
four  thousand  people  and  his  marvelous  voice 
(without  any  aid  from  the  recently  invented 
amplifiers)  enabled  them  all  to  hear  his  message. 

His  sermons  were  printed  in  pamphlets  and  in 
book  form,  and  are  being  printed  yet,  although  he 
has  been  dead  for  more  than  thirty  years;  and  the 
circulation  of  them  has  extended  into  millions  of 
copies.  He  was  in  no  sense  a  scholar  —  he  knew 
almost  nothing  about  the  critical  study  of  the  Bible, 
or  of  church  history,  or  of  philosophy.  But  “  he  be- 


The  Larger  Faith 


lieved  what  he  believed,  and  for  the  man  whose 
main  business  it  is  to  produce  faith  in  other  men 
this  is  more  valuable  than  all  technical  scholar¬ 
ship.”  He  proclaimed  Christ  and  Him  crucified 
with  wonderful  effect. 

He  was  unconventional  —  he  would  joke  in  the 
pulpit  and  shock  the  taste  of  his  more  sensitive 
hearers.  When  preaching  about  hell  and  certain 
other  doctrines  he  would  indulge  in  language  so 
extravagant  that  we  would  scarcely  credit  it  did 
we  not  find  it  in  print  in  volumes  published  under 
his  own  supervision.  But  he  knew  the  common 
people  and  they  knew  him.  He  won  thousands 
of  them  to  Christian  life  and  service.  He  ac¬ 
complished  results  in  which  every  thoughtful 
Christian  rejoices.  His  later  life  was  clouded  by 
his  feeling  that  the  Baptist  denomination  was 
becoming  too  liberal  in  its  views  on  the  fall  of  man, 
the  atonement,  the  inspiration  of  the  Bible  and 
the  fate  of  the  wicked,  and  consequently  he  with¬ 
drew  from  the  Baptist  Union.  During  the  latter 
part  of  his  ministry  he  and  his  church  stood  alone, 
but  his  bow  abode  in  strength,  and  his  power  of 
appeal  was  mighty. 

Russell  H.  Conwell,  whose  lecture  on  “  Acres  of 
Diamonds  ”  has  been  given  some  eight  thousand 
times,  earning  for  him  a  large  amount  of  money, 
which  he  has  promptly  put  back  into  the  philan¬ 
thropic  work  of  his  own  church  and  of  his  college 
for  working  people,  has  been  one  of  the  most 

18 


The  Baptist  Church 


striking  figures  in  the  modern  pulpit.  His  work  in 
the  Temple  Baptist  Church  in  Philadelphia,  espe¬ 
cially  in  the  educational  and  social  facilities  offered 
to  young  men  and  young  women  unable  to  go  to 
college,  has  been  greatly  blessed.  He  has  been 
recently  honored  by  the  award  of  a  service  medal 
given  to  him  as  “  the  most  useful  citizen  ”  in  the 
City  of  Brotherly  Love.  I  could  name  many  other 
outstanding  figures  in  the  Baptist  pulpit  but  these 
two  may  serve  to  illustrate  the  principle  named 
above. 


Ill 

The  third  contribution  made  by  the  Baptists 
has  been  in  their  strong  insistence  upon  the  entire 
separation  of  Church  and  State.  This  separation  of 
civil  and  religious  authority  may  seem  to  many 
people  in  this  country  like  one  of  those  things  which 
goes  without  saying.  It  has  not  always  been  so 
and  it  is  not  so  now  —  “  the  more’s  the  pity  ”  — 
in  many  other  lands.  It  is  for  the  good  of  both 
Church  and  State  that  they  should  move  along  dis¬ 
tinct  lines  —  lines  which  may  indeed  stretch  out 
in  the  same  general  direction  toward  human  well¬ 
being  but  they  should  not  be  made  identical  nor 
should  either  attempt  to  rule  the  other.  “  Render 
unto  Caesar  the  things  which  are  Caesar’s  ”  but 
only  the  things  which  are  Caesar’s  —  this  has  been 
the  steady  contention  of  the  Baptist  in  all  lands  and 
in  all  times. 


19 


The  Larger  Faith 


Roger  Williams,  one  of  the  early  Baptist  heroes 
in  this  country,  was  driven  out  of  Massachusetts, 
not  because  he  believed  in  immersion  or  because  of 
any  special  religious  tenets  he  held.  At  that  time 
he  was  not  even  a  Baptist  for  he  was  not  immersed 
until  after  he  went  to  Rhode  Island.  He  was  driven 
out  because  of  his  extreme  individualism  in  insisting 
upon  the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  As  soon 
as  he  landed  in  this  country  he  stirred  up  trouble 
by  urging  the  Christians  of  Massachusetts  to  join 
in  an  act  of  public  repentance  for  having  com¬ 
muned  with  the  Church  of  England,  which  was  a 
state  church.  He  wrote  against  the  Massachusetts 
Patent,  claiming  that  the  king  of  England  had  no 
right  to  grant  land  to  the  colonists.  He  censured 
the  Colony  for  requiring  oaths  from  citizens  on  the 
ground  that  to  exact  an  oath  from  an  unregenerate 
person  involved  the  sin  of  taking  God’s  name  in 
vain.  He  denied  any  power  to  the  civil  magistrate 
in  matters  of  religious  faith. 

This  was  not  acceptable  to  the  people  of  Massa¬ 
chusetts  Bay  at  that  time.  They  still  maintained 
a  close  relation  between  Church  and  State.  Thus 
Roger  Williams  became  what  Theodore  Roosevelt 
called  u  an  undesirable  citizen,”  and  he  was  invited 
to  leave  as  a  troublesome  agitator.  He  went  to 
Providence,  was  there  immersed,  became  a  Baptist 
and  founded  Rhode  Island,  the  first  state  in  the 
Union  to  guarantee  entire  religious  freedom. 

It  was  a  protest  sorely  needed  in  that  day, 

20 


The  Baptist  Church 


Massachusetts  had  passed  laws  against  Baptists 
because  of  their  attitude  touching  these  matters 
in  1644,  had  imprisoned  them  in  1651  and  banished 
them  in  1669.  This  was  religious  persecution  by 
civil  authority,  which  the  Baptists  have  always 
opposed.  New  York  did  the  same  thing  and  so  did 
Virginia.  The  Protestant  churches  of  Zurich, 
Switzerland,  having  just  won  their  own  liberty 
and  still  in  dread  of  Rome,  nevertheless  passed  an 
ordinance  that  any  minister  administering  the  rite 
of  baptism  by  immersion  should  be  drowned  — 
with  some  idea  of  poetic  justice  perhaps,  making 
“  the  punishment  fit  the  crime.”  They  actually 
executed  that  sentence  against  one  Felix  Mantz, 
a  Baptist  minister,  by  drowning  him  in  the  lake  of 
Zurich. 

As  late  as  the  year  1863,  the  new  code  of  the 
State  of  Georgia  provided  in  Section  1376  that 
“  it  should  be  unlawful  for  any  church  or  society 
to  license  any  slave  or  free  person  of  color  to  preach 
or  exhort  or  otherwise  officiate  in  church  meet¬ 
ings.”  This  aroused  the  Baptists  of  that  state. 
They  declared  in  a  written  communication  to  the 
State  Legislature  that  this  was  seizing  by  force  the 
things  that  are  God’s  and  rendering  them  unto 
Caesar.  They  insisted  that  the  State  of  Georgia 
was  undertaking  to  dictate  to  the  Almighty  what 
color  his  preachers  should  be.  And  they  announced 
that  even  with  such  an  enactment  before  their  eyes 
they  would  ordain  negroes  to  the  ministry  if  they 

21 


The  Larger  Faith 


were  godly  men.  They  then  proceeded  to  ordain 
twoj  and  the  protest  of  those  southern  Baptists 
became  so  effective  that  the  offending  section  was 
repealed  at  the  next  session  of  the  Legislature. 
The  Baptists  have  been  ready  to  go  all  lengths  in 
their  insistence  upon  the  entire  separation  of 
Church  and  State. 

In  England  at  this  hour  John  Clifford,  a  Baptist 
minister,  is  one  of  the  forces  to  be  reckoned  with 
politically.  He  is  a  great  tribune  of  the  people,  a 
voice  for  the  non-conformist  conscience  of  Great 
Britain.  He  supported  Gladstone,  opposed  the 
Boer  War,  fought  the  brewers  when  they  lined  up 
with  the  Lords  to  oppose  temperance  legislation, 
which  was  sadly  needed.  He  opposed  the  Educa¬ 
tion  Act  and  allowed  his  own  private  property  to 
be  taken  away  from  him  by  the  Government  rather 
than  pay  taxes  collected  by  the  State  to  support 
church  schools.  He  urged  the  dis-establishment  of 
the  state  church  on  the  ground  that  the  civil 
authorities  have  no  right  to  impose  upon  the  people 
the  burden  of  supporting  any  form  of  religion  by 
public  taxation.  He  helped  in  the  triumph  of  the 
Liberal  Party  in  1906,  representing  the  people  as 
against  “  the  interests  ”  and  the  hereditary  aristoc¬ 
racy.  When  I  was  in  England  I  heard  him  speak 
repeatedly  at  great  public  demonstrations  in  Hyde 
Park  arid  elsewhere  and  I  could  understand  how 
in  that  land  of  tradition,  of  class  feeling,  of  close 
connection  between  Church  and  State,  he  had 

22 


The  Baptist  Church 


become  a  mighty  influence  for  good  by  his  steady 
insistence  upon  this  fundamental  Baptist  principle 
of  entire  separation  of  civil  and  religious  authority. 

It  was  no  less  a  man  than  Macaulay,  a  warm 
friend  of  the  aristocracy  and  a  strong  supporter  of 
the  Established  Church,  who  said,  “There  were 
many  cultivated  minds  in  England  during  the  lat¬ 
ter  part  of  the  Seventeenth  Century  but  there  were 
only  two  great  creative  minds.  One  of  them  was 
the  author  of  Paradise  Lost,  and  the  other  was  the 
author  of  Pilgrim's  Progress .”  The  author  of 
Paradise  Lost  was  John  Milton,  a  man  born  and 
reared  in  the  Church  of  England.  The  author  of 
Pilgrim's  Progress  was  John  Bunyan,  an  untitled 
Baptist  preacher.  His  book  became  and  has 
remained  for  more  than  two  hundred  years  a 
genuine  classic  for  the  whole  English-speaking 
world. 

The  history  of  the  Baptist  people  in  regard  to 
missionary  effort  has  been  a  curious  one.  When 
the  idea  of  sending  missionaries  to  foreign  lands 
was  first  suggested,  it  split  the  church.  The  anti¬ 
missionary  party  said,  “If  God  wants  the  heathen 
converted  he  will  convert  them  without  our  help.” 
Because  of  their  extreme  Calvinism  they  insisted 
that  the  efforts  of  the  missionary  societies  would  be 
“  an  unjustifiable  encroachment  upon  the  divine 
sovereignty,”  for  God  by  his  eternal  decrees  had 
determined  from  all  eternity  who  should  be  saved 
and  who  should  be  lost.  And  the  Baptists  who 

23 


The  Larger  Faith 


held  this  view  were  split  off  and  became  a  separate 
denomination. 

But  the  missionary  spirit  grew  and  “  the  mis¬ 
sionary  Baptists  ”  were  the  first  in  England  to 
organize  a  missionary  society  and  in  1793  William 
Carey  went  out  to  become  one  of  the  noblest  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  the  history  of  India.  In  1812  Adoniram 
Judson,  who  was  a  Congregationalist,  was  sent  out 
by  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  in 
that  church  but  he  changed  his  views  on  baptism 
during  the  voyage  and  upon  reaching  Calcutta  was 
immersed  and  became  a  widely  known  and  honored 
missionary  of  the  Baptist  denomination  in  Burmah. 
The  world-wide,  generous  interest  of  the  Baptist 
people  in  missionary  enterprises  has  been  a  leading 
note  in  their  church  life  for  the  last  hundred  years. 

Have  we  not  great  need  of  these  fine  qualities 
for  which  the  Baptist  Church  has  been  conspicuous? 
We  have  seen  the  liberties  of  free  men,  and  the 
great  cause  of  democracy  threatened  by  the  resolute 
attack  of  a  mad  military  caste  which  undertook 
the  subjugation  of  a  whole  continent  in  its  own 
interest.  In  that  government  the  individual  was 
sacrificed  to  the  State.  He  was  not  “  free  to  think 
and  act,  free  to  look  at  fact,  free  to  come  and  go  ” 
—  he  was  only  a  blind  and  submissive  cog  in  a 
machine  whose  wheels  turned  at  the  will  of  its 
self-appointed  supervisors.  Under  that  regime 
when  one  button  was  pressed  the  clergy  danced; 

24 


The  Baptist  Church 


when  another  button  was  pressed  by  the  proper 
official  the  university  professors  danced ;  and  when 
another  button  was  pressed  the  state-employed 
servants  of  mercantile  interests  made  their  obei¬ 
sance.  It  was  a  fearfully  effective  and  menacing 
system. 

That  whole  method  jars  upon  the  man  reared  in 
this  atmosphere  of  freedom.  u  Stand  fast,  there¬ 
fore,  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  hath  made  you 
free!  Be  not  entangled  with  the  yoke  of  bondage. 
Ye  have  been  called  unto  liberty,  only  use  not 
liberty  for  an  occasion  to  the  flesh  but  by  love 
serve  one  another.” 

Let  every  man  be  true,  the  Baptist  Church 
would  say,  true  to  the  voice  within,  true  to  his 
personal  convictions  of  right  and  wrong,  true  to  the 
American  spirit  of  separation  between  Church  and 
State,  true  to  God,  that  he  may  enter  into  the  full 
inheritance  which  belongs  alike  to  every  child  of 
the  Most  High. 


25 


THE  CONGREGATIONAL 
CHURCEI 


Chapter  II 


The  Congregational  Church 

The  Congregational  Church  is  my  own  church. 
I  was  not  born  so  —  my  father  was  a  Methodist 
and  my  mother  until  after  her  marriage  was  a 
Presbyterian.  But  when  I  came  to  choqse  for 
myself,  I  felt  that  I  would  be  happier  and  more 
useful  in  the  Congregational  Church  which  for 
thirty-odd  years  has  been  my  spiritual  home. 
I  have  written  in  cordial,  sympathetic  terms  of  the 
strong  points  in  the  other  churches  and  of  the  con¬ 
tributions  they  have  made  to  our  total  Christianity. 
In  writing  of  my  own  church  it  would  be  neither 
fair  nor  honest  did  I  not  speak  in  the  same  frank 
way  of  its  excellences.  I  trust  that  I  may  do  this 
not  in  the  spirit  of  boasting  but  in  open  recognition 
of  any  contribution  which  this  church  has  made 
to  “  The  Larger  Faith.” 

The  Congregational  body  takes  its  name  from 
the  fact  that  all  power  is  vested  in  the  “  congrega¬ 
tion  ”  of  the  local  church.  Any  company  of  Chris¬ 
tian  believers  associating  themselves  together  for 
the  worship  of  God  and  the  service  of  man  consti¬ 
tute,  according  to  this  view,  a  complete  church. 
This  single  congregation  standing  alone,  acknowl¬ 
edging  only  Christ  as  the  Head  of  all  the  Churches, 

29 


The  Larger  Faith 


is  competent  to  formulate  its  own  creed,  to  arrange 
its  own  mode  of  worship,  to  elect  and  set  apart  its 
own  officers,  pastor,  deacons  and  the  like,  to  man¬ 
age  its  own  affairs  as  to  sacraments,  benevolences 
and  other  matters  of  church  life,  to  receive  and 
dismisjs  members,  by  the  vote  of  the  congregation. 
It  does  all  this  looking  to  no  outside  authority 
whatsoever,  bishops,  presbyteries,  conferences  or 
assemblies,  but  only  to  such  guidance  as  may  come 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  unseen  Head  of  the  Church. 
All  earthly  authority  inheres  in  the  congregation, 
and  consequently  such  a  church  is  called  a  “  Con¬ 
gregational  Church.” 


I 

The  four  main  contributions  which  this  branch  of 
Christ’s  Church  seems  to  have  made  to  our  total 
Christianity  are  these  —  first,  its  high  confidence 
in  a  pure  democracy.  Its  form  of  polity  is  “  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  people,  by  the  people  and  for  the 
people.”  It  trusts  the  people  to  manage  their  own 
spiritual  affairs.  It  trusts  any  group  of  Christian 
people,  large  or  small,  rural  or  urban,  simple  or 
cultured,  who  have  been  led  to  organize  themselves 
under  the  leadership  of  Christ  into  a  Christian 
church. 

The  whole  idea  of  dependence  upon  some  set  of 
officers  placed  over  them  to  tell  them  what  they 
shall  believe  in  their  creeds,  what  they  shall  say  in 
their  prayers  and  their  other  forms  of  worship,  who 

30 


The  Congregational  Church 


their  pastor  shall  be  and  how  he  shall  be  set  apart 
to  that  office,  is  foreign  to  their  method.  They 
would  no  more  accept  it  than  they  would  accept 
the  idea  that  domestic  life  needs  some  such  official 
supervision.  “  We  are  a  family  in  the  Lord,” 
they  say  —  “  One  is  our  Master,  even  Christ,  and 
all  we  are  brethren.”  We  acknowledge  no  other 
authority,  save  Christ  as  the  Head  of  the  Church, 
in  questions  of  creed,  ritual,  ministry  or  service, — 
all  these  matters  are  to  be  determined  by  each 
church  family  for  itself. 

“  From  within  outward,  from  beneath  upward, 
is  the  direction  of  life,”  Dr.  Storrs  once  said, 
“  in  the  spiritual  no  less  than  in  the  physical  world. 
To  undertake  to  reverse  this  process  in  church 
life  seems  to  us  as  unreasonable  as  trying  to  set 
a  growing  tree  on  its  branches  instead  of  its 
roots.”  Power  goes  up,  not  down,  all  governments 
deriving  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed. 

One  can  readily  understand  how  such  a  form  of 
church  government  came  to  be.  It  was  a  protest 
against  the  monarchical  spirit  in  religion.  The 
principle  of  local  self-government  indicated  that 
the  unit  of  sovereignty  in  religious  matters  should 
be  the  local  congregation  of  believers.  The  Con¬ 
gregational  polity,  therefore,  is  not  monarchical 
in  that  it  refuses  to  be  governed  by  bishops.  It  is 
not  a  representative  form  of  government  in  that  it 
declines  the  rule  of  elders.  It  is  a  pure  democracy 

3i 


The  Larger  Faith 


in  that  it  commits  all  power  directly  into  the  hands 
of  the  people. 

Whatever  is  done  in  the  Congregational  Church 
is  done  directly  by  the  vote  of  the  congregation. 
If  a  pastor  is  to  be  called,  if  some  young  man  is 
to  be  ordained  to  the  ministry,  if  a  change  is  to  be 
made  in  the  creed,  if  any  innovation  is  desired  in 
the  ritual  or  the  forms  of  worship,  if  a  new  member 
is  to  be  received,  if  a  member  is  to  be  dismissed  to 
some  other  church,  if  money  is  to  be  given  in 
benevolence,  if  anything  whatsoever  which  pertains 
to  church  life  is  to  be  done,  no  outside  authority 
has  anything  to  say  in  the  matter.  In  every  one  of 
these  instances  the  initiative  is  taken  by  the  con¬ 
gregation.  The  pastor  has  no  authority  to  issue 
a  letter  of  transfer  to  a  member  desiring  to  unite 
with  another  church,  as  would  be  the  case  in  the 
Episcopal  or  the  Methodist  Church  —  this,  too, 
must  be  done  by  the  vote  of  the  congregation,  and 
the  letter  of  transfer  will  be  signed  by  the  Clerk  of 
the  Church. 

In  the  Congregational  Church  the  pastor  himself 
does  not  belong  to  a  separate  class.  He  is  not  a 
member  of  a  conference,  as  the  Methodist  pastor  is, 
or  of  a  diocese  as  the  rector  in  an  Episcopal  Church 
is,  or  of  a  Presbytery,  according  to  the  usage  of  the 
Presbyterians.  He  is  a  member  of  the  church  he 
serves,  uniting  with  it  by  letter  from  the  church 
with  which  he  was  last  connected,  like  any  other 
member.  He  is  pastor,  not  because  he  belongs  to 

32 


The  Congregational  Church 


a  separate  priestly  or  preaching  order,  but  by 
virtue  of  his  election  to  that  office  by  the  votes  of 
his  fellow  members  of  the  congregation. 

It  is  the  idea  of  the  New  England  town  meeting 
incorporated  into  church  life.  It  is  pure  democracy, 
in  that  authority  is  not  handed  down  from  above, 
nor  delegated  to  certain  chosen  representatives, 
but  retained  throughout  in  the  hands  of  the  people 
themselves.  It  is  a  form  of  polity  which  is  shared 
by  the  Disciples  of  Christ  and  by  the  Baptist  and 
the  Unitarian  Churches,  but  the  Congregationalists 
were  the  first  to  practice  it,  and  they  have  placed 
upon  it  peculiar  emphasis. 

It  is  their  belief  that  the  earliest  churches  of 
apostolic  times  enjoyed  this  simple  form  of  govern¬ 
ment.  We  do  not  find  in  the  New  Testament  any 
one  central  authority  controlling  all  the  churches, 
but  each  congregation  proceeding  upon  its  way  with 
the  words,  “  It  seemed  good  to  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  to  us,”  as  a  sufficient  sanction  for  its  action. 
We  find  references  to  “  the  church  at  Jerusalem,” 
“  the  church  of  Antioch,”  “  the  churches  of  Asia,” 
and  “  the  churches  of  Cilicia,”  indicating  the  com¬ 
mon  usage.  In  similar  fashion  the  Congregational 
people  do  not  ordinarily  use  the  term  “  The  Con¬ 
gregational  Church  ”  as  comprising  all  the  people 
of  their  faith  —  they  speak  of  “  The  Congrega¬ 
tional  Churches,”  for  each  congregation  is  a  church 
in  itself.  In  committing  all  authority  as  to  creed, 
ritual,  and  government  into  the  hands  of  the  local 

33 


The  Larger  Faith 

congregation,  they  assert  their  confidence  in  the 
value  and  efficiency  of  pure  democracy.  In  these 
recent  years  when  God  seems  to  have  been  saying 
with  renewed  emphasis,  “  I  am  tired  of  kings  ” 
one  can  see  at  a  glance  the  value  of  this  particular 
contribution  to  “  The  Larger  Faith.  ” 

II 

The  second  contribution  lies  in  their  intellectual 
breadth.  The  Congregational  attitude  in  matters 
of  belief  may  be  indicated  by  these  familiar  words, 
—  “  In  essentials,  unity;  in  non-essentials,  liberty; 
in  all  things,  charity.”  We  would  not  place  a  man 
in  a  Congregational  pulpit  who  was  an  atheist, 
or  one  who  denied  the  validity  of  those  principles 
of  right  living  contained  in  the  words  of  Christ, 
or  one  who  set  at  naught  what  are  universally 
regarded  among  Christians  as  the  eternal  verities 
of  the  spiritual  world.  But  upon  the  basis  of  cer¬ 
tain  great  fundamentals  we  build  a  church  life 
which  is  characterized  by  large  intellectual  hospi¬ 
tality.  We  have  had  among  our  laymen,  and  in 
our  ministry,  men  of  very  conservative  views  — 
Joseph  Cook,  a  kind  of  arch-defender  of  old- 
fashioned  orthodoxy,  was  to  the  day  of  his  death  a 
Congregational  minister.  We  have  also  men  of 
exceedingly  liberal  and  radical  opinions  —  Lyman 
Abbott,  editor  of  the  Outlook ,  was  an  honored  and 
useful  Congregational  minister.  John  Robinson 
urged  the  Pilgrims  when  they  were  about  to  sail 

34 


The  Congregational  Church 


for  America,  to  “  believe  that  God  had  much  more 
light  to  fall  from  His  Holy  Word,"  and  they  tried  to 
live  with  their  eyes  and  minds  open  for  that  fuller 
light. 

We  find  it  more  easy  to  maintain  this  theological 
hospitality  because  we  have  no  formulated  articles 
of  religion  or  creed  statements,  which  are  univer¬ 
sally  binding  as  are  the  Articles  of  Religion,  or  the 
Westminster  Confession  in  the  Episcopal,  the 
Methodist  and  the  Presbyterian  Churches.  Each 
local  congregation  formulates  its  own  creed.  If 
the  pastor  is  in  agreement  with  the  creed  of  his 
own  church,  and  if  his  teaching  is  acceptable  to 
that  congregation  to  which  he  ministers,  no  outside 
authority  can  disturb  him. 

Touching  things  fundamental,  we  maintain  a 
general  consensus  of  belief  among  our  churches, 
sufficient  for  harmony  of  action,  by  the  second 
principle  of  our  polity,  known  as  11  the  fellowship 
of  the  churches.”  Each  church  is  expected  to  live 
on  terms  of  fellowship  with  its  sister  churches. 
In  the  decision  of  vital  questions  each  church  is 
encouraged  to  ask  counsel  from  other  churches,  and 
in  turn  to  give  such  advice  when  it  is  sought  by 
neighboring  churches  through  what  are  known  as 
“  Ecclesiastical  Councils.”  It  is  understood,  how¬ 
ever,  throughout,  that  this  relation  is  advisory  and 
not  mandatory.  Thus  the  churches  living  in 
fellowship  with  one  another  maintain  an  adequate 
doctrinal  agreement  among  themselves,  each  one 

35 


The  Larger  Faith 


formulating  and  adopting  its  own  particular  creed, 
to  secure  that  harmony  of  action  which  has  been 
ours  for  centuries. 

We  strive  to  exhibit  this  breadth,  not  only  in 
questions  of  doctrine,  but  in  matters  of  Christian 
usage.  We  prescribe  no  form  of  worship,  as  certain 
other  branches  of  the  Church  do.  If  any  congrega¬ 
tion  wishes  to  adopt  a  full-orbed  liturgical  service 
as  the  church  served  by  W.  E.  Orchard  in  London 
has  done,  with  prayers,  collects  and  lessons  all 
prescribed,  it  has  that  privilege.  If  some  other 
congregation  wishes  to  observe  the  utmost  sim¬ 
plicity,  it  enjoys  the  same  liberty.  We  prescribe 
no  fixed  form  for  any  of  the  Christian  rites  —  we 
leave  the  mode  of  baptism  to  the  conscience  of  the 
candidate.  In  my  own  ministry  I  have  sprinkled 
hundreds  of  people,  and  I  have  also  immersed 
a  goodly  number,  who  preferred  that  mode  of 
baptism. 

We  build  no  barriers,  doctrinal  or  otherwise, 
around  the  Communion  Table.  We  cordially 
invite  “  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
sincerity  and  truth  ”  to  commune  with  us  whatever 
may  be  their  church  affiliations  or  their  particular 
theological  beliefs.  In  matters  of  doctrine  we  are 
happy  in  having  men  of  conservative  temper 
among  us  —  we  do  not  wish  to  make  them  uncom¬ 
fortable  because  of  their  conservatism.  We  are 
happy  in  having  liberals  —  we  believe  that  wher¬ 
ever  they  are  sincere  followers  of  Christ,  the  Church 

36 


The  Congregational  Church 


He  founded  should  be  roomy  enough  to  make  them 
also  at  home.  As  we  view  it  the  ultimate  test  of 
Christian  discipleship  is  not  theological  theory, 
but  love  and  devotion  to  the  Master —  “  By  this 
shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye 
love  one  another.” 

Ill 

The  third  contribution  may  be  found  in  the 
special  emphasis  laid  upon  education  by  Congrega- 
tionalists  everywhere.  I  am  not  intimating  that 
the  Congregational  Church  stands  alone  in  this  — 
all  branches  of  the  Church  stand  for  intellectual 
training,  but  its  contribution  to  the  work  of  higher 
education  in  this  country  was  the  earliest  and  has 
been  in  certain  ways  the  most  remarkable.  The 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  a  little  company  of  empty-handed 
people  in  a  new  and  wild  country,  landed  at  Ply¬ 
mouth  in  1620.  They  were  compelled  to  labor  “  in 
hunger  and  cold,  in  weariness  and  painfulness.” 
Yet  in  exactly  sixteen  years  from  the  time  they 
landed  on  that  bleak  coast,  out  of  their  penury, 
they  founded  Harvard  College,  the  oldest  and 
perhaps  the  most  influential  institution  for  higher 
education  in  America. 

The  Congregationalists  founded  Harvard  and 
Yale,  Bowdoin  and  Dartmouth,  Williams  and 
Amherst,  Oberlin  and  Beloit,  Grinnell,  Washburn, 
Carleton,  Colorado,  Whitman,  Pomona  and  other 
colleges  to  the  number  of  fifty-six  in  the  United 

37 


The  Larger  Faith 


States  —  a  number  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
size  as  a  denomination,  for  they  are  not  one  of  the 
larger  sects.  For  the  higher  education  of  women 
the  Congregationalists  founded  Wellesley  and 
Smith,  Mount  Holyoke  and  Mills  Colleges,  that 
women  might  be  the  intellectual  companions  and 
associates  of  men  in  all  the  wider  interests  of  their 
lives.  They  began  this  work  of  higher  education 
primarily  that  they  might  have  an  educated  minis¬ 
try,  but  they  did  it  likewise  that  young  men  and 
maidens  might  receive  their  training  under  the 
stimulus  and  guidance  of  Christian  ideals. 

The  one  man  who  has  influenced  the  theological 
thinking  of  experts  in  this  country  more  than  any 
other,  the  man  who  ranked  as  the  greatest  theolo¬ 
gian  of  the  Eighteenth  Century  in  any  country, 
Jonathan  Edwards,  was  a  Congregational  minister 
at  Northampton,  Massachusetts.  The  two  men  in 
America  who  did  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
two  who  could  be  named  to  influence  the  popular 
mind  to  accept  more  reasonable  and  more  helpful 
views  of  Christian  doctrine,  Horace  Bushnell,  with 
his  emphasis  upon  Christian  nurture,  and  Henry 
Ward  Beecher,  in  his  mighty  protest  against  the 
more  awful  aspects  of  Calvinism,  were  both  Con¬ 
gregational  pastors. 

Because  of  this  emphasis  upon  the  value  of 
college  and  seminary  training  this  denomination, 
although  one  of  the  smaller  sects,  has  produced  a 
splendid  list  of  great  preachers  in  America  — 

38 


The  Congregational  Church 


Beecher  and  Bushnell,  William  M.  Taylor  and 
Richard  S.  Storrs,  Lyman  Abbott  and  Theodore  T. 
Munger,  Washington  Gladden  and  Amory  H. 
Bradford,  George  A.  Gordon  and  Charles  E. 
Jefferson,  S.  Parkes  Cadman  and  Frank  W.  Gunsau- 
lus!  They  have  been  great  preachers,  reaching  the 
ears,  the  minds  and  the  hearts  of  the  many  by  the 
power  of  their  message  conveyed,  as  it  has  been, 
through  the  medium  of  trained  and  consecrated 
personality.  The  very  quality  of  our  church  life 
freed  from  the  trammels  of  officialism  and  mechan¬ 
ism  has  encouraged  the  development  of  strong, 
stimulating,  independent  personality  —  and  this 
coupled  with  an  emphasis  upon  training  through 
education  has  forwarded  the  growth  of  preaching 
of  a  higher  order. 

The  Congregational  Church  has  been  a  teaching 
church.  It  has  sought  to  lead  men  to  know  Him 
who  said,  “  I  am  the  truth,  and  ye  shall  know  the 
truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free  ”  from  that 
which  hinders  life.  It  has  produced  a  long  list  of 
noble  and  useful  educators  —  Mark  Hopkins  at 
Williams,  of  whom  Garfield  said,  “  Mark  Hopkins 
at  one  end  of  a  log  and  myself  at  the  other  would  be 
college  enough  for  me  Timothy  Dwight,  Noah 
Porter  and  Theodore  Wolsey  of  Yale,  Austin 
Phelps  and  Edwards  Park  of  Andover,  Charles 
G.  Finney  of  Oberlin  and  William  J.  Tucker  of 
Dartmouth,  William  Dewitt  Hyde  of  Bowdoin, 
Daniel  C.  Gilman  of  Johns  Hopkins,  Cyrus  North- 

39 


The  Larger  Faith 


rup  of  Minnesota,  James  B.  Angell  of  Michigan, 
Mary  Lyon  of  Mt.  Holyoke  and  Alice  Freeman 
Palmer  of  Wellesley, —  all  of  them  Congregational- 
ists.  If  you  would  find  their  monuments,  look  not 
in  some  place  of  cold  marble  —  look  at  the  lives 
which  caught  from  them  the  spirit  of  noble  living 
and  of  useful  service. 

The  two  most  widely  read  religious  periodicals 
in  this  country,  the  Outlook  and  the  Independent , 
were  both  founded  by  Congregationalists  and  both 
of  them  for  many  years  had  Congregational  minis¬ 
ters  as  their  managing  editors. 

The  same  emphasis  on  education  has  enabled 
this  branch  of  the  Church  to  produce  an  unusual 
number  of  great  hymn  writers  —  Isaac  Watts  and 
Philip  Doddridge,  who  set  the  praise  of  the  fathers 
to  music,  were  both  Congregationalists.  In  more 
recent  years  Ray  Palmer,  whose  “  My  Faith  Looks 
up  to  Thee  ”  has  been  sung  everywhere,  Timothy 
Dwight,  Leonard  Bacon  and  Washington  Gladden 
have  contributed  hymns  which  now  belong  to  the 
universal  Church.  Lowell  Mason,  who  for  eighty 
years  gave  his  strength  and  taste  to  the  improve¬ 
ment  of  church  music  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  called 
“  the  father  of  American  church  music,”  was  a  life¬ 
long  member  of  the  Congregational  body. 

It  has  been  a  teaching  church  and  while  it  may 
have  lacked  some  of  the  warmth  and  fervor  of  the 
Methodists,  while  it  may  have  been  less  tenacious 
of  its  doctrinal  positions  than  the  Presbyterian 

40 


The  Congregational  Church 


Church,  it  has  effectively  construed  the  religious 
life  in  terms  of  education,  seeking  to  lead  men  to 
know  the  truth  which  makes  men  wise  unto  salva¬ 
tion.  Time  would  fail  me  to  tell  of  all  of  the  less 
famous  colleges  and  academies  established  by  the 
people  of  this  church,  north,  south,  east  and  west, 
each  gathering  its  pupils  to  confer  upon  them  those 
benefits  which  belong  both  to  the  life  that  now  is 
and  to  the  life  which  is  to  come. 

IV 

In  the  fourth  place,  this  Church  has  been  notable 
for  its  missionary  spirit  and  zeal.  The  first  mis¬ 
sionary  organization  in  this  country  to  send  the 
gospel  to  non-Christian  lands  was  the  “  American 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,”  which  resulted  from 
the  Hay  Stack  prayer-meeting  at  Williams  College 
more  than  a  century  ago.  The  American  Board 
remains  to  this  day  in  the  personality  of  its  mission¬ 
aries  and  in  the  high  quality  of  its  work  one  of  the 
leading  missionary  societies  of  the  world.  The 
largest  gifts  per  capita  for  the  work  of  foreign  mis¬ 
sions  for  many  years  were  made  by  the  Congrega- 
tionalists,  excepting  only  that  little  group  of  Chris¬ 
tians  known  as  Moravians,  whose  warm  and  gener¬ 
ous  missionary  zeal  has  exceeded  that  of  any  other 
church  in  Christendom. 

And  some  of  the  most  useful  and  famous  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  the  foreign  field  have  been  of  this  faith. 
In  many  lands  their  work  has  been  nothing  less 

4i 


The  Larger  Faith 


than  epoch-making  —  John  Eliot,  the  apostle  to 
the  Indians  and  Cyrus  Hamlin  in  Turkey,  Hiram 
Bingham  of  Hawaii  and  Robert  A.  Hume  of  India, 
Arthur  H.  Smith  of  China  and  James  H.  deForest 
of  Japan,  men  with  the  hearts  of  saints  and  the 
minds  of  statesmen!  They  wrought  righteousness 
and  obtained  the  promises,  subdued  kingdoms  and 
put  to  flight  armies  of  evil.  As  a  result  of  their 
labors,  men  have  seen  the  Kingdom  of  God  coming 
with  power  in  many  a  land. 

This  Church  was  the  first  to  organize  a  foreign 
missionary  society  and  the  first  also  to  organize  a 
home  missionary  society  for  the  evangelization  of 
our  own  land.  The  work  of  the  home  missionary 
is  less  romantic  and  picturesque  but  he  has  gone 
to  the  lumber  camps,  the  mining  towns  and  to  the 
lonely  communities  in  the  midst  of  the  great  wide 
ranches  to  make  known  to  men  the  good  news  of 
life  eternal.  We  had  an  “  Iowa  Band  ”  which 
came  out  from  Andover  Seminary  and  their  names 
are  written  across  the  moral  life  of  that  great  state 
in  the  Middle  West  to  stay.  We  had  a  “  Yale 
Band  ”  in  the  State  of  Washington  and  they  carried 
the  finest  traditions  of  that  honored  university  to 
engrave  them  upon  the  eager,  restless  life  of  the 
great  Northwest.  The  Spirit  said  “  Go,”  and 
they  went  —  and  all  those  regions  which  have 
profited  by  the  labors  of  cultured,  consecrated  men 
rise  up  to-day  and  call  them  blessed. 

The  Congregational  Church  was  the  first  to 

42 


The  Congregational  Church 


> 

undertake  the  education  of  the  freedmen  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War  —  a  comparison  of  statistics 
a  few  years  ago  showed  that  it  had  put  more  money 
at  that  time  into  Christian  schools  for  the  negroes 
of  the  South  than  all  the  other  denominations 
combined.  It  was  the  first  to  introduce  Christian 
education  in  Utah,  making  it  a  potent  instrument 
there  to  offset  the  influence  of  Mormonism. 

Its  scholars  have  taken  high  place  in  making 
translations  of  the  Scriptures  into  foreign  languages 
for  missionary  work.  Hiram  Bingham  reduced  to 
writing  the  entire  language  of  the  Gilbert  Islanders 
in  Micronesia  and  made  a  translation  of  the  entire 
Bible  for  their  instruction.  John  S.  Chandler 
utilized  his  seven  years  of  training  at  Yale  and  his 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  vernacular  to  compile 
the  standard  Lexicon  of  the  Tamil  language  for 
the  people  of  southern  India.  Twenty-seven 
languages  in  all,  have  been  reduced  to  writing  by 
missionaries  of  the  American  Board  and  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  eighty  translations  of  the  Bible  into  other 
tongues  have  been  made  by  their  hands  and  brains 
for  the  extension  of  the  influence  of  the  gospel  of 
Christ. 

With  all  its  intellectual  breadth  (which  has  some¬ 
times  disturbed  our  more  conservative  brethren), 
with  all  its  apparent  lack  of  close-knit  organization, 
the  missionary  spirit  of  the  Congregational  body 
has  been  so  real  and  so  warm  that  it  has  been  an 
evangelizing  church.  How  many  of  the  great 

43 


The  Larger  Faith 


historic  revivals  and  of  the  mighty  leaders  in  wide¬ 
spread  religious  movements  have  come  from  this 
branch  of  Christ’s  Church!  Jonathan  Edwards 
more  than  any  other  man  was  responsible  for  “  the 
great  awakening  ”  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 
Charles  G.  Finney  of  Oberlin  was  the  one  man  who 
did  more  than  any  other  to  promote  the  religious 
awakening  which  came  in  the  decades  preceding  the 
Civil  War.  Dwight  L.  Moody  was  regarded  as  the 
most  successful  evangelist  in  the  last  third  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century.  In  noble  evangelism  it  would 
be  difficult  to  name  three  men  who  have  accom¬ 
plished  more  for  our  country  than  Edwards, 
Finney  and  Moody,  all  of  them  lifelong  Congrega- 
tionalists.  The  work  of  these  men  was  not  mere 
noise  and  froth,  creating  a  nine-days’  wonder  by 
eccentric,  sensational  methods  and  then  leaving  the 
community  cold.  It  was  the  honest,  effective 
enlisting  of  men  and  women  in  the  open,  active 
service  of  Christ.  Of  that  sort  of  evangelism  we 
cannot  have  too  much. 

This  branch  of  the  Church  has  furnished  other 
widely  known  religious  leaders  —  Francis  E.  Clark, 
founder  and  head  of  the  Christian  Endeavor 
movement,  has  been  all  these  years  a  Congrega¬ 
tional  minister.  R.  J.  Campbell  of  London  while 
he  remained  a  Congregationalist  led  one  of  the 
significant  religious  movements  of  the  Twentieth 
Century.  However  we  may  disagree  with  some  of 
his  theology,  or  disapprove  some  of  his  peculiar 

44 


The  Congregational  Church 


methods,  he  was  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with.  Other 
leaders  whose  later  work  may  seem  less  satisfying 
illustrate  the  power  of  this  branch  of  the  Church  to 
develop  leadership.  Benjamin  Fay  Mills,  for 
many  years  a  most  successful  evangelist,  was 
ordained  as  a  Congregational  minister,  and  for  a 
long  time  was  a  member  with  us.  Mrs.  Mary 
Baker  G.  Eddy,  the  founder  of  Christian  Science, 
was  the  product  and  in  early  life  a  member  of  our 
branch  of  the  Church.  Its  missionary  spirit  and  its 
intellectual  breadth  have  combined  to  give  the 
Congregational  body  a  certain  genius  for  the 
development  of  widely  influential  religious  leaders. 
Its  men  and  women,  strong  and  free,  constantly 
compelled  to  manage  their  own  affairs,  have  had  a 
way  of  moving  to  the  front. 

It  has  shown  the  same  missionary  zeal  in  all  the 
great  reforms.  The  real  beginning  of  the  tem¬ 
perance  movement  in  America  which  has  now  taken 
shape  in  the  form  of  an  Amendment  to  the  Federal 
Constitution,  dates  from  a  series  of  sermons 
preached  against  the  evil  of  intemperance  in  New 
England  by  Lyman  Beecher  at  a  time  when  tippling 
was  common  both  with  the  ministers  and  the  laity 
of  the  evangelical  churches.  In  the  early  agitation 
against  slavery  few  more  conspicuous  figures  are 
to  be  found  than  those  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
Leonard  Bacon  and  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe.  The 
first  social  settlement  to  transplant  living  Chris¬ 
tianity  into  the  less  favored  section  of  a  large  city 

45 


The  Larger  Faith 


by  sending  a  group  of  cultured  men  and  women  to 
live  there  was  the  Andover  House  in  Boston  — 
now  the  South  End  House  —  taking  its  name 
originally  from  the  fact  that  Andover  Theological 
Seminary  stood  behind  it.  One  of  the  most  useful 
men  in  that  work  today  is  Graham  Taylor  in  the 
Chicago  Commons,  a  professor  in  one  of  our  Semi¬ 
naries.  The  earliest  “  Institutional  Churches  ” 
to  achieve  success  along  the  line  of  a  more  varied 
form  of  service  to  the  community,  were  Berkeley 
Temple  in  Boston,  the  Tabernacle  Church  in  Jersey 
City  and  the  Fourth  Congregational  Church  of 
Hartford.  Washington  Gladden,  Raymond  Rob¬ 
bins  and  other  well  known  Congregationalists  have 
been  leaders  in  the  high  task  of  making  thorough, 
intelligent  application  of  the  principles  of  the  Ser¬ 
mon  on  the  Mount  to  the  social  and  industrial 
conditions  under  which  men  live.  In  every  form 
of  good  work  that  same  missionary  zeal,  cherished 
and  handed  on,  has  found  useful  expression. 

The  real  essence  of  Congregationalism  is  not  to 
be  found  in  a  certain  type  of  church  polity,  nor  in 
an  authoritative  creed  statement,  for  it  has  none, 
nor  in  a  prescribed  form  of  ritual,  for  its  modes  of 
worship  vary  widely  —  the  real  essence  of  the 
Pilgrim  faith  is  to  be  found  in  a  certain  sense  of 
freedom  and  of  fellowship  in  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 
One  is  our  Master  and  in  serving  Him  we  are  all 
brothers. 


46 


THE  CHURCH  OF  THE  DISCIPLES 


Chapter  III 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  in 
the  north  of  Ireland,  two  men  lived,  father  and 
son,  Thomas  Campbell  and  Alexander  Campbell. 
They  were  Presbyterian  ministers,  belonging  to 
that  section  of  the  Church  known  as  “The  Seced- 
ers.”  They  were  deeply  religious  men  and,  possess¬ 
ing  in  generous  measure  the  qualities  of  leadership, 
they  were  destined  to  play  a  large  part  in  an 
important  religious  movement  here  in  this  newer 
section  of  the  world. 

Thomas  Campbell  had  been  educated  in  Glasgow 
University  and  in  Divinity  Hall.  He  was  scholarly, 
lovable,  devout,  and  preeminently  a  man  of  peace. 
His  home  was  a  center  of  religious  instruction  and 
devotion,  and  his  parish  is  said  to  have  been  the 
most  exemplary  in  that  whole  region.  He  saw  the 
evils  of  a  narrow  sectarianism,  and  he  was  earnestly 
desirous  of  promoting  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity. 

He  was  in  frail  health  at  that  time  and  in  the 
hope  of  gaining  physical  benefit,  he  emigrated  in 
1807  to  the  United  States.  He  brought  with  him 
his  credentials  as  a  Presbyterian  pastor  and  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Synod  in  Philadelphia,  he  was 
cordially  received  and  recommended  to  the  Presby¬ 
tery  of  Chartiers,  located  in  western  Pennsylvania. 
Here  he  was  assigned  to  a  field  of  labor  and  began 

49 


The  Larger  Faith 


his  active  ministry  in  this  country  as  a  pastor  of 
The  Seceder  Church. 

He  found  in  that  new  community  numbers  of 
excellent  church  people,  some  of  them  long  cher¬ 
ished  friends  from  his  native  land.  He  entered  into 
joyous  fellowship  with  them,  ministering  to  them  in 
spiritual  things.  He  was  sent  on  a  missionary  tour 
through  western  Pennsylvania  to  preach  the  gospel 
and  to  administer  the  sacrament  to  the  scattered 
Seceders  in  that  thinly  populated  region.  He  found 
communicants  of  other  Presbyterian  bodies  who 
had  not  been  enjoying  the  privileges  of  the  Lord’s 
Supper.  His  heart  went  out  to  them  in  ready 
sympathy  and  he  openly  invited  them  all  to  partici¬ 
pate  in  the  communion  services. 

This  action  gave  offence  to  the  stricter  party 
in  The  Seceder  Church.  Mr.  Campbell  was  brought 
before  his  Presbytery  to  be  questioned  and  a  vote 
of  censure  was  passed  condemning  him  for  the 
practice  of  a  more  inclusive  fellowship  of  Christians 
at  the  table  of  the  Lord.  He  appealed  to  the  Synod, 
hoping  that  the  vote  of  censure  would  be  revoked. 
The  Synod  reviewed  the  case,  and  while  it  found 
some  irregularities  in  the  action  of  the  Presbytery, 
the  vote  of  censure  was  affirmed.  This  was  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  the  separation  of  the  Campbells  from  the 
Presbyterian  Church  where  they  had  been  reared. 

Thomas  Campbell’s  withdrawal  from  the  Seced¬ 
ers  did  not  interrupt  in  any  way  his  labors  as  a 
minister  of  Christ.  While  the  churches  of  his  former 

50 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


faith  were  not  open  to  him,  he  preached  in  private 
houses,  in  groves  and  wherever  opportunity  might 
offer.  In  this  way  a  considerable  number  of  people 
who  sympathized  with  his  spirit  and  method  were 
brought  into  a  certain  fellowship  of  Christian  effort. 
A  conference  was  arranged  in  a  private  house  near 
Washington,  Pennsylvania.  Mr.  Campbell  opened 
the  meeting  with  prayer,  invoking  the  blessing  of 
God  and  the  divine  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
upon  their  deliberations.  Growing  out  of  this  con¬ 
ference  there  came,  at  a  meeting  held  later  on  the 
head  waters  of  Buffalo  Creek,  in  August,  1809,  the 
formation  of  what  was  known  as  “  The  Christian 
Association  of  Washington.” 

The  organization  of  another  sect  or  denomination 
of  Christians  did  not  at  that  time  lie  within  the 
minds  of  these  earnest  people.  They  were  not  de¬ 
taching  themselves  from  the  churches  to  which  they 
owed  allegiance.  The  general  purpose  of  the  move¬ 
ment  was  expressed  in  what  is  known  as  “  The 
Declaration  and  Address  ”  written  by  Thomas 
Campbell  himself,  which  came  to  be  the  magna 
charta  of  the  Disciple  movement.  The  instrument 
is  too  long  to  be  quoted  here  in  its  entirety,  but 
the  spirit  of  it  has  been  accurately  summarized  by 
William  T.  Moore  in  his  “  History  of  the  Disciples 
of  Christ.”  “  Our  desire  for  ourselves  and  for  our 
brethren  would  be,  that  rejecting  human  opinions 
and  the  inventions  of  men  as  of  any  authority,  we 
might  cease  from  further  contentions,  returning  to 

5i 


The  Larger  Faith 


and  holding  fast  by  the  original  standard,  taking  the 
divine  Word  alone  for  our  rule,  the  Holy  Spirit  for 
our  teacher  and  guide  to  lead  us  into  all  the  truth, 
and  Christ  alone  for  our  salvation,  that  by  so  doing 
we  may  be  at  peace  among  ourselves  and  follow 
peace  with  all  men  and  holiness  without  which  no 
man  shall  see  the  Lord.” 

Upon  the  basis  of  this  u  Declaration  and  Ad¬ 
dress  ”  the  leaders  of  the  movement  continued 
their  work.  Men  and  women  were  being  won  to 
Christ  and  believers  were  being  built  up  in  faith 
and  hope  and  love.  In  spite  of  the  emphasis  upon 
Christian  union,  however,  “  The  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion  of  Washington  ”  was  gradually  taking  shape 
as  a  separate  church.  Thomas  Campbell  was 
grieved  when  he  was  accused  of  starting  another 
religious  denomination  at  a  time  when  sectarianism 
was  even  more  of  a  hindrance  to  the  work  of  Christ 
in  the  world  than  it  is  today.  He  insisted  that  no 
such  purpose  was  in  his  heart,  that  his  whole  aim 
was  to  heal  the  divisions  of  Christendom  rather 
than  to  multiply  them.  And  in  line  with  that 
determination  he  decided  to  apply  to  the  Synod  of 
Pittsburg  for  membership  in  the  Presbyterian 
Church.  He  wished  to  disclaim  in  the  most  positive 
way  any  intention  of  starting  another  sect. 

He  therefore  made  formal  application  in  October, 
1810,  for  “  Christian  and  ministerial  communion  ” 
with  the  Synod  of  Pittsburg.  He  appeared  before 
the  Synod  and  gave  a  clear,  frank  statement  of  his 

52 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


own  religious  position.  His  application  was  care¬ 
fully  considered  and  was  denied.  The  Synod  made 
answer  in  these  terms,  “It  was  not  for  any  immoral¬ 
ity  in  practice  but  for  expressing  his  belief  that 
there  are  some  opinions  taught  in  our  Confession  of 
Faith  which  are  not  founded  in  the  Bible,  for  declar¬ 
ing  that  the  administration  of  baptism  to  infants  is 
not  authorized  by  scriptural  precept  or  example, 
for  encouraging  his  son  to  preach  the  gospel  without 
any  regular  authority  and  for  opposing  creeds  and 
confessions  as  injurious  to  the  cause  of  religion, 
that  the  Synod  deemed  it  improper  to  grant  his 
request.” 

Just  at  this  time  Alexander  Campbell,  the  son 
of  Thomas  Campbell,  entered  actively  into  the 
further  development  of  this  movement.  He  came 
from  Ireland  to  the  United  States  in  the  year 
1809.  He  approved  of  his  father’s  course  and  he 
threw  himself  earnestly  into  the  work  of  making 
the  principles  announced  in  the  “  Declaration  and 
Address  ”  widely  known. 

Alexander  Campbell  was  a  man  of  less  concilia¬ 
tory  spirit  and  much  more  aggressive  than  his 
father.  He  moved  about  through  the  states  of 
West  Virginia,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  Kentucky 
and  engaged  in  theological  debates  and  in  pro¬ 
claiming  his  convictions  with  incisiveness  and 
vigor.  In  his  celebrated  debate  with  Robert  Owen 
“  he  spoke  for  twelve  hours  with  only  such  slight 
interruptions  as  were  demanded  for  rest  and  refresh- 

53 


The  Larger  Faith 


ment.”  He  engaged  in  a  mighty  discussion  with 
Archbishop  Purcell  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati  over 
the  respective  positions  of  the  Disciples  movement 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  He  conducted 
a  debate  with  Nathan  L.  Rice  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Lexington,  Kentucky,  which  extended 
through  eighteen  days,  takingmp  the  general  sub¬ 
ject  of  baptism,  of  conversion  and  sanctification 
and  the  tendency  and  influence  of  human  creeds. 
He  started  a  new  monthly  magazine  called  “  The 
Millenial  Harbinger  ”  to  contend  earnestly  for 
what  he  believed  to  be  “  the  faith  once  for  all 
delivered  to  the  saints.”  He  belonged  to  the 
church  militant  and  he  waged  an  aggressive  and 
incessant  warfare  against  what  he  regarded  as 
human  error  and  sinfulness. 

How  far  away  from  that  whole  mood  and  method 
have  we  moved  in  these  days,  Presbyterians, 
Methodists,  Baptists,  Disciples  and  everybody 
else!  The  Christian  world  rests  its  weight  in  these 
days,  not  so  much  upon  the  proper  formulation  of 
theological  belief,  as  upon  the  expression  of  spiritual 
impulse  in  useful  action.  It  places  its  emphasis  not 
so  much  upon  the  particular  opinions  men  cherish 
as  upon  the  utterance  of  their  convictions  in  kindly 
service.  It  would  be  well-nigh  impossible  to  induce 
the  great  leaders  of  any  of  the  Churches  to  engage 
in  these  times  in  such  extended  discussion  of  their 
theological  differences  and  it  would  be  altogether 
impossible  to  induce  the  patient  people  to  listen 

54 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


to  such  presentations  for  twelve  hours,  to  say 
nothing  of  lending  their  ears  to  such  contentions 
for  eighteen  days.  The  first  and  great  command¬ 
ment  is  not  “  Thou  shalt  know  ”  —  it  is  “  Thou 
shalt  love.”  On  the  love  we  show  for  God  and  for 
man  hangs  our  whole  case. 

Early  in  his  ministry  in  this  country  Alexander 
Campbell  became  acquainted  with  Margaret 
Brown,  whose  home  was  in  Brooke  County,  West 
Virginia.  Their  friendship  soon  ripened  into  affec¬ 
tion  and  in  1811  they  were  married  by  a  Presby¬ 
terian  minister.  They  made  their  home  on  Buffalo 
Creek  at  the  site  of  the  little  town  of  Bethany. 
Here  Alexander  Campbell  lived  for  half  a  century! 
Here  Bethany  College  was  established  and  he 
became  its  first  and  honored  President,  holding 
this  position  to  the  close  of  his  life!  Here  his 
curious  octagonal  study,  entirely  detached  from 
the  rest  of  his  house,  stands  to  this  day!  Here  he 
was  buried  in  that  beautiful  cemetery  which  has 
done  so  much  to  make  Bethany  one  of  the  shrines 
and  sacred  places  for  all  the  Disciples  of  Christ. 

I 

The  distinctive  contributions  made  by  the 
Disciples  to  our  total  Christianity  seem  to  be: 

First,  an  intense  denominational  consciousness! 
It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any  other  branch  of 
the  Protestant  Church  which  has  such  a  definite, 
loyal,  close-knit,  insistent  feeling  of  fellowship. 

55 


The  Larger  Faith 


In  a  somewhat  more  limited  sense  than  that 
intended  by  the  Master,  his  words  may  well  be 
applied  to  this  portion  of  His  Church,  “  By  this 
shall  all  men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye 
have  love  one  to  another.”  The  Disciples  love  one 
another,  work  for  each  other,  protect  each  other 
and  seek  in  countless  ways  to  advance  one  another’s 
interests. 

This  spirit  where  it  is  not  wisely  directed  may 
easily  have  the  defect  of  its  virtues.  It  may  lead 
to  a  narrow  or  bigoted  clannishness.  It  may 
permit  or  even  encourage  the  spirit  of  proselyting 
from  other  communions  which  are  not  held  in  the 
same  high  esteem.  It  may  show  itself  unmindful 
of  that  fraternal  consideration  suggested  by  the 
Master  where  he  gave  his  own  gracious  recognition 
to  other  sheep  which  are  not  of  this  fold. 

But  this  is  not  a  necessary  part  of  that  intense 
loyalty  to  one’s  own  faith.  Where  can  we  find  a 
more  consistent,  winsome  and  effective  promoter 
of  the  spirit  of  Christian  unity  than  Peter  Ainslie, 
one  of  the  outstanding  leaders  among  the  Disciples, 
for  more  than  twenty-five  years  the  honored  and 
successful  pastor  of  that  great  church  of  their  faith 
in  the  city  of  Baltimore? 

This  profound  denominational  consciousness  and 
this  intense  loyalty  to  the  people  of  their  own  com¬ 
munion  have  gone  far  in  enabling  the  Disciples  to 
demonstrate  the  fact  that  a  religious  body  can 
remain  united  and  efficient  without  the  aid  of  any 

56 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


man-made  creed.  Their  basis  of  agreement  in  hav¬ 
ing  no  creed  statement  but  the  Bible  has  been 
called  **  A  rope  of  sand.”  But  by  their  steadfast 
adherence  to  Christ,  their  basis  of  union  has  been 
anything  but  fleeting  sand  —  it  has  been  like  the 
house  of  the  wise  man  which  was  built  upon  the 
rock  of  obedience  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church. 
The  deep  denominational  consciousness  of  these 
Christians  has  served  to  hold  them  together  in  a 
splendid  unity  of  purpose. 

II 

The  second  distinctive  contribution  would  lie 
in  the  constant  maintenance  of  an  active  evangelis¬ 
tic  spirit.  There  are  other  branches  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church,  the  Methodists,  the  Baptists,  the 
United  Brethren,  which  have  shown  throughout 
their  history  a  healthy  spirit  of  evangelism.  But 
with  them  it  has  been  more  often  a  thing  of  times 
and  of  seasons.  There  have  come  periods  of 
refreshing,  seasons  of  blessing,  special  revival 
efforts,  when  multitudes  of  those  who  were  in 
process  of  being  saved  were  added  to  the  Church. 

The  Disciples  maintain  almost  without  interrup¬ 
tion  the  purpose,  the  methods  and  the  achieve¬ 
ments  of  evangelistic  effort.  It  is  their  custom  at 
each  service  on  the  Lord’s  Day  to  “  open  the  doors 
of  the  church,”  as  they  say,  to  give  opportunity 
then  and  there  at  the  close  of  each  service  for  any 
persons  present  to  declare  by  coming  forward  their 

57 


The  Larger  Faith 


desire  to  confess  Christ  and  to  become  members  of 
His  Church.  The  minister  in  preparing  and  in 
preaching  his  sermons,  the  people  in  praying  for 
the  divine  blessing  to  rest  upon  the  service  in  which 
they  are  engaged,  have  it  constantly  in  mind  that 
the  hour  will  find  its  climax  in  the  invitation  for 
those  who  would  find  peace  to  their  souls  to  take 
their  stand  on  the  Lord’s  side.  This  very  expecta¬ 
tion  strengthens  the  faith  of  pastor  and  people  alike 
in  the  power  of  direct  appeal. 

This  is  one  reason  why  this  branch  of  the  Church 
has  grown  so  rapidly.  It  was  celebrating  its  cen¬ 
tennial  anniversary  in  this  country  only  yesterday, 
yet  it  has  already  enrolled  upon  the  list  of  its 
members  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  followers 
of  Christ.  It  is  not  a  static  but  a  dynamic  church. 
It  would  have  men  come  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  and  at  once  declare  it  in  action.  It  is  forever 
saying,  “  Behold  I  set  before  you  this  day  a  blessing 
and  a  curse,  life  and  death.  Therefore  choose 
life.”  And  its  word  is  with  power.  It  has  written 
a  noble  record  of  steady  and  effective  evangelism. 

Ill 

The  third  distinctive  contribution  may  be  found 
in  the  emphasis  which  the  Disciples  place  upon 
apostolic  custom.  The  famous  dictum  of  Thomas 
Campbell,  “Where  the  Scriptures  speak  we  speak, 
where  the  Scriptures  are  silent  we  are  silent,” 
was  as  he  insisted  a  direct  return  to  what  was 

58 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 

apostolic.  He  discarded  the  practice  of  infant 
baptism,  not  upon  any  claim  that  it  could  not  be 
employed  to  the  edification  of  the  church,  but  upon 
the  ground  that  no  clear  instances  of  bringing 
infants  of  days  to  the  apostles  to  be  baptized  could 
be  found  in  the  Bible. 

He  insisted  upon  baptism  by  immersion  only, 
not  upon  the  grounds  of  taste  or  of  convenience  or 
of  the  spiritual  impressiveness  of  the  rite  adminis¬ 
tered  in  this  particular  way  —  he  insisted  upon 
immersion  solely  upon  the  ground  that  this  was  the 
mode  of  baptism  practiced  in  the  church  of  the 
apostles.  He  and  his  son  had  not  been  so  baptized 
when  they  first  became  the  leaders  of  the  new  move¬ 
ment,  and  it  was  an  impressive  scene  when  upon 
that  memorable  day  in  June,  1812,  Thomas  Camp¬ 
bell  and  his  wife,  Alexander  Campbell  and  his  wife 
and  sister,  with  three  others,  were  immersed  in 
Buffalo  Creek  by  Elder  Luce  of  the  Baptist  Church. 

It  is  the  firm  belief  of  the  Disciples  that  in  the 
early  Church  the  taking  of  bread  and  wine  in  the 
name  of  Christ  at  the  Lord’s  table,  was  a  stated 
observance  in  the  worship  of  every  Lord’s  Day. 
It  has  proved  to  be  a  potent  means  of  fellowship. 
“  The  meeting  together  once  a  week  around  the 
Lord’s  table  and  remembering  His  sacrificial  death 
for  their  sins  has  had  a  comforting  and  a  strongly 
uniting  influence  on  the  Disciples.  In  the  presence 
of  the  emblems  which  show  forth  the  sufferings 
and  death  of  their  divine  Lord,  they  have  found  an 

59 


The  Larger  Faith 


irresistible  bond  of  union  and  a  cementing  power 
which  can  come  from  nowhere  else.” 

In  the  choice  of  a  name  they  have  shown  the 
same  attitude.  This  branch  of  the  Church  was 
popularly  known  for  a  long  time  as  “  The  Camp- 
bellite  Church.”  This  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
Disciples  themselves,  however  great  might  be 
their  appreciation  of  the  service  rendered  by 
Thomas  and  Alexander  Campbell.  They  would 
not  have  their  church  bear  the  name  of  any  man. 
There  were  many  among  them  who  favored  the 
idea  of  having  their  denomination  known  simply 
as  “  The  Christian  Church  ”  but  wiser  heads 
among  them  recognized  that  this  would  savor  of 
arrogance  and  bigotry,  as  implying  that  the  rest 
of  us  who  follow  Christ  are  not  Christians.  They 
would  accept  no  name,  however,  which  was  not 
scriptural  and  apostolic.  The  legal  name  of  this 
branch  of  Christ’s  Church  therefore  stands  as  “  The 
Disciples  of  Christ.” 

The  very  name  is  an  asset  in  itself.  “  The  disci¬ 
ples  were  first  called  Christians  at  Antioch.” 
The  “  disciples  ”!  The  word  “  disciple  ”  comes 
from  the  Latin  word  “  discere,”  to  learn.  The 
learners,  the  pupils,  those  who  have  by  their  own 
choice  and  act  placed  themselves  directly  and  per¬ 
manently  under  the  tuition  of  the  Master,  are  called 
Christians.  The  church  is  a  place,  not  for  finished 
scholars  in  the  art  of  living,  not  for  post-graduates 
who  have  already  taken  their  doctors’  degrees  in 

60 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


goodness  —  the  church  is  a  place  for  learners  and 
pupils,  those  who  become  as  little  children  that 
they  may  enter  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  At 
Antioch  and  everywhere  the  people  “  called  Chris¬ 
tians  ”  are  the  pupils  of  Him  who  is  “  the  way  and 
the  truth  and  the  life.” 

This  same  emphasis  uppn  apostolic  method  has 
influenced  the  Disciples  in  defining  the  true  object 
of  faith.  “  I  know  whom  ”  —  not  what  but  whom 
—  “I  have  believed  and  I  am  persuaded  that  He 
is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto 
Him.”  The  man  who  knows  “  whom  ”  he  has 
believed  is  a  man  of  faith,  even  though  he  may  not 
feel  quite  sure  as  to  what  he  believes  at  every  point. 
He  can  move  ahead  serene  and  undaunted  by  the 
power  of  his  faith. 

“  Dost  thou  believe  on  the  Son  of  God?  ”  was 
the  question  addressed  by  Jesus  Himself  to  the 
inquirer.  It  was  not,  “  What  do  you  believe?  ” 
And  the  inquirer’s  answer  was,  “  Who  is  he,  Lord, 
that  I  might  believe  on  him?  ”  The  Disciples 
have  steadily  insisted  that  there  is  a  vital  difference 
between  faith  and  opinion.  Faith  is  the  mood,  the 
bearing,  the  response  of  the  soul  to  Christ,  giving 
substance  to  all  the  great  things  which  are  hoped 
for.  Opinion  is  a  state  of  mind  while  faith  is  an 
attitude  of  heart.  From  first  to  last  the  “  faith  ” 
enjoined  upon  men  in  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  per¬ 
sonal  rather  than  doctrinal. 

The  absence  of  carefully  formulated  creed  state- 

61 


The  Larger  Faith 

ments  has  allowed  and  encouraged  a  goodly  meas¬ 
ure  of  intellectual  liberty  among  the  Disciples. 
The  conservatives  and  the  liberals  alike  are  “called 
Christians  ”  because  they  are  the  pupils  and  follow¬ 
ers  of  the  Lord  Christ.  Alexander  Campbell  him¬ 
self,  though  he  lived  and  died  before  the  modern 
methods  of  historical  Biblical  interpretation  had 
been  introduced,  in  many  ways  anticipated  the 
Higher  Criticism  in  his  insistence  upon  “  Dis- 
pensational  truth.”  He  spoke  of  the  “  starlight 
age  ”  and  the  “  moonlight  age  ”  and  the  “  sunlight 
age  ”  in  spiritual  insight.  He  drew  a  firm  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  law  and  the  gospel,  the 
old  dispensation  and  the  new.  He  placed  a  very 
different  appraisal  upon  the  Old  Testament  script- 
tures  from  that  accorded  to  the  New  Testament. 
“  We  are  not  under  Moses,”  he  would  say,  “  but 
under  Christ.”  To  his  scholarly,  discriminating 
mind  the  claim  that  “  the  whole  Bible  is  the  infal¬ 
lible  word  of  God  from  lid  to  lid  and  all  alike 
inerrant,”  Leviticus  or  Luke,  Judges  or  John, 
would  have  been  abhorrent.  He  believed  that  in 
the  Bible  as  elsewhere  it  is  first  the  blade,  then  the 
ear  and  then  still  later  the  fully  ripened  corn. 

The  Disciples  do  not  object  to  the  publishing 
and  interpreting  of  the  teaching  of  the  Scriptures 
as  they  may  bear  upon  any  subject  whatsoever 
of  faith  or  duty  for  the  purpose  of  instruction  and 
education.  They  protest  against  the  use  of  any 
such  statements  as  a  condition  of  fellowship.  “  It 

62 


The  Church  of  the  Disciples 


must  be  apparent  to  anyone  that  it  is  unreasonable 
to  require  children  or  men  of  undisciplined  mind  to 
subscribe  to  abstract  statements  laboriously  pre¬ 
pared  by  trained  thinkers  as  conditions  of  member¬ 
ship  in  Christ’s  Holy  Church.”  They  would  have 
all  men  stand  fast  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ, 
through  their  personal  trust  in  Him,  has  made  them 
free. 

When  the  Disciples  celebrated  their  Centennial 
in  1909  in  Pittsburg,  the  crowning  feature  of  the 
whole  Convention  was  the  communion  service  held 
in  the  afternoon  of  the  Lord’s  Day.  The  sacrament 
was  celebrated  in  Forbes  Field  and  thirty  thousand 
communicants  assembled  to  partake  together  of  the 
Lord’s  Supper.  In  the  whole  history  of  the  Protes¬ 
tant  Church  it  was  in  all  probability  the  largest 
communion  service  ever  held.  One  hundred  elders 
served  at  the  tables  and  five  hundred  deacons 
served  the  great  congregation  with  the  bread  and 
the  wine  of  remembrance.  The  elders  led  in  the 
words  of  thanksgiving  and  the  voice  of  the  people 
in  praise  and  prayer  was  like  the  sound  of  many 
waters.  When  the  vast  congregation  arose  and 
lifted  their  hearts  in  devotion,  as  they  sang  together 
those  words  from  “  Nearer  My  God  to  Thee,”  it 
was  a  time  of  blessing  and  honor  and  glory  and 
power  and  wisdom  and  might.  It  was  an  impres¬ 
sive  fulfillment  of  that  great  word  of  our  Lord, 
“  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me.” 


63 


f 


\ 


THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


Chapter  IV 


The  Episcopal  Church 

The  full  legal  title  of  the  Episcopal  Church  tells 
us  something  of  its  character  and  of  its  history. 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States  of  America!  This  title  distinguishes  it  from 
that  Church  which  acknowledges  the  supremacy  of 
the  Pope  at  Rome  —  it  is  a  “  Protestant  ”  Church. 
It  is  a  church  governed  by  bishops  —  an  “  episco¬ 
pal  ”  church.  It  is  likewise  a  branch  of  a  still  older 
church,  the  Church  of  England  —  it  is  The  Protes¬ 
tant  Episcopal  Church  “  in  the  United  States  of 
America.” 

It  is  a  long  and  somewhat  awkward  title.  Many 
attempts  have  been  made  by  the  General  Conven¬ 
tion  to  have  the  name  changed.  Some  of  the  loyal 
adherents  of  this  communion  have  wished  to  drop 
the  word  “  protestant  ”  on  the  ground  that  the 
Episcopal  Church  is  a  part  of  “  The  Holy  Catholic 
Church.”  There  are  others  who  would  have  been 
glad  to  have  it  called  “  The  American  Church.” 
But  this  has  been  opposed  by  the  broader-minded 
Episcopalians  on  the  ground  that  such  a  designa¬ 
tion  would  seem  bigoted,  inasmuch  as  the  Episcopal 
Church  is  neither  the  oldest  nor  the  largest  nor 
perhaps  the  most  widely  useful  of  all  the  Churches  in 
America.  To  call  it  “  The  American  Church  ” 

67 


The  Larger  Faith 


would  be  claiming  for  it  altogether  too  much.  It 
remains,  therefore,  The  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 

I 

Now  the  three  main  contributions  made  by  this 
Church  to  “  The  Larger  Faith  ”  are  in  my  judgment 
these:  First,  the  value  of  system.  “  Let  all  things  be 
done  decently  and  in  order,”  that  is  to  say,  with 
good  taste  and  in  some  systematic  way.  This  is  one 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  that  communion. 
In  the  Episcopal  Church  nothing  is  left  at  loose 
ends  or  dependent  upon  some  snap  judgment  taken 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment.  It  has  its  three  orders 
of  ministers,  bishops,  priests  and  deacons  with 
the  duties  and  privileges  of  each  order  carefully 
defined.  It  has  its  wardens  and  vestrymen  among 
the  laity.  Its  many  societies  are  all  carefully* 
organized.  It  understands  fully  the  importance 
of  sound  method. 

In  the  conduct  of  its  worship,  the  individual 
minister  is  not  left  to  work  out  his  own  personal 
preferences  or  perhaps  his  ill-considered  eccentrici¬ 
ties.  The  Church  puts  into  his  hands  “  The  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,”  indicating  exactly  what  he  is 
to  say  when  he  is  leading  the  devotions  of  his 
people.  Here  are  the  Scripture  lessons  which  are 
to  be  read,  chapter  and  verse,  on  each  day  of  the 
year!  Here  is  the  Church  Year  with  the  Gospel 
and  the  Epistle  for  each  Sunday,  outlining  a  kind 

68 


The  Episcopal  Church 


of  general  program  for  the  minister’s  sermons! 
Here  is  what  the  choir  is  to  sing  —  the  singers  are 
not  left  free  to  introduce,  as  some  choirs  unhappily 
have  done,  any  piece  of  pious  doggerel  set  to 
religious  rag-time  or  some  love  song  with  sacred 
words  put  to  it.  Here  are  the  Te  Deum,  the 
Venite,  the  Magnificat,  the  Benedictus,  the  Nunc 
Dimittis  and  all  the  other  offices  of  the  church, 
holding  the  music  of  worship  up  to  a  high  and 
dignified  standard!  “  Let  all  things  be  done 
decently  and  in  order,”  —  and  nothing  is  ever 
done  in  any  other  way  in  the  Episcopal  Church. 

The  Church  Year  itself,  following  in  its  lessons 
the  main  events  of  Christ’s  life,  is  a  fine  illustration 
of  the  value  of  system.  When  the  first  of  December 
comes,  the  season  of  Advent  leads  the  people  to 
think  about  the  power  of  the  Scriptures,  the  value 
of  the  ministry  and  the  preparation  for  the  coming 
of  the  Messiah.  Then  the  Christmas  season  leads 
them  to  think  upon  the  nativity  of  Christ,  the 
mystery  of  childhood,  the  duty  of  parents,  the 
dignity  of  human  life,  as  taught  by  the  doctrine  of 
the  Incarnation.  Then  comes  Epiphany  and  they 
follow  the  Wise-men  with  their  gifts  and  the  larger 
appeal  of  Christ’s  message. 

Then  later  in  the  Church  Year  comes  Lent,  with 
its  teaching  of  self-denial,  of  humility,  and  of 
separation  from  worldly  pleasures  for  the  deepening 
of  the  devotional  life.  Then  comes  Palm  Sunday 
with  the  Triumphal  Entry  of  Christ  into  the  cities 

69 


The  Larger  Faith 


of  men,  with  the  assertion  of  his  Kingship  over  all 
their  varied  interests.  Then  comes  Good  Friday 
when  the  people  are  summoned  to  stand  before 
the  Cross,  witnessing  the  glory  of  sacrifice  and 
meditating  upon  the  reconciliation  there  accom¬ 
plished  between  God  and  man.  Then  Easter  with 
the  triumph  of  good  over  evil,  of  life  over  death! 

Then  forty  days  later  Ascension  Day,  bearing 
its  witness  to  the  widening  influence  of  Christian 
truth  as  it  emerges  from  a  local  into  a  universal 
faith!  Then  ten  days  later,  Whitsunday,  com¬ 
memorating  the  outpouring  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at 
Pentecost!  Then  Trinity  Sunday  and  all  the 
“  Sundays  after  Trinity  ”  calling  upon  men  to 
worship  God  in  the  fullness  of  His  being. 

Now  that  noble  outline  of  lessons  and  prayers 
will  help  to  save  any  minister  and  congregation 
from  becoming  narrow  and  lopsided.  It  prevents 
the  minister  from  playing  all  of  his  religious  music 
on  a  single  stop  like  a  bagpipe  or  all  on  one  string 
like  a  jew’s-harp.  It  helps  him  to  become  something 
like  a  full-toned  church  organ  with  its  various  stops. 

It  aids  him  in  declaring  by  his  teaching  “  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,”  in  place  of  dwelling  all  the 
time  upon  one  or  two  particular  themes  which 
happen  to  engage  his  special  interest.  When  we 
witness  the  narrowness  of  certain  pulpits,  we  could 
wish  that  some  larger  plan  might  be  there  intro¬ 
duced  instead  of  trusting  everything  to  the  subjec¬ 
tive  impulses  and  the  miscellaneous  choices  of 

70 


The  Episcopal  Church 


John  Smith.  There  is  a  distinct  advantage  to  be 
gained  by  the  establishment  of  a  more  varied  and 
adequate  outline  for  the  instruction  and  inspiration 
of  the  people  who  represent  so  many  different 
moods  and  temperaments,  such  varied  forms  of 
capacity. 

In  the  Prayer  Book  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
nothing  is  left  to  chance  impulse  or  the  extempo¬ 
raneous  output  of  some  man  who  may,  or  may 
not  be,  possessed  of  judgment  and  taste.  Here  it  is 
in  black  and  white!  Here  is  exactly  what  is  to  be 
said,  and  all  that  is  to  be  said,  at  the  baptism  of  a 
child  or  at  the  confirmation  of  a  believer  or  in  cele¬ 
brating  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper!  Here 
is  what  is  to  be  said  at  a  marriage  ceremony,  or  in 
the  visitation  of  the  sick,  or  at  the  burial  of  the  dead! 
Here  is  the  proper  form  of  sound  words  to  be  used 
at  the  laying  of  a  corner-stone,  or  at  the  dedication 
of  a  church,  or  at  the  ordination  of  a  minister, 
or  in  family  prayer!  It  is  all  laid  down  in  system¬ 
atic  fashion  so  that  all  may  know  in  advance  exactly 
what  is  to  be  said  and  sung  and  done.  “  Decently 
and  in  order  ”  —  both  of  these  points  are  strongly 
emphasized  in  this  branch  of  the  Christian  Church. 

This  constant  emphasis  upon  system  and  conven¬ 
tion  is  one  reason  perhaps  why  this  Church  does  not 
attract  nor  develop  in  its  ministry  so  many  men  of 
striking  personality  as  would  be  the  case  in  other 
branches  of  the  Church.  It  does  not  tend  to  encour¬ 
age  the  development  of  strong,  original  and  attrac- 

7i 


The  Larger  Faith 


tive  preachers.  Phillips  Brooks,  whose  inheritance 
and  earlier  training,  by  the  way,  were  Congrega¬ 
tional,  was  one  of  the  greatest  preachers  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century  in  this  country,  but  he  stood 
almost  alone  in  his  own  communion.  There  was 
no  other  preacher  in  the  Episcopal  Church  in  that 
day  to  be  named  with  him. 

The  four  clergymen  who  did  so  much  to  make  the 
Episcopal  Church  strong  and  useful  beyond  any 
other  single  Protestant  church  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  Bishop  Potter  and  Doctors  Rainsford,  Hunt¬ 
ington  and  Greer  (later  Bishop  Greer)  were  none 
of  them  extraordinary  preachers.  They  were  men 
of  unusual  ability  in  organization  and  administra¬ 
tion.  They  enlisted  the  interest  of  men  of  large 
means ;  they  organized  a  vast  body  of  workers  and 
they  pointed  the  way  of  advance  in  serving  the 
spiritual  needs  of  that  great  city,  with  the  vision  of 
statesmen.  All  this  has  high  value  —  it  belongs 
naturally  to  that  branch  of  the  Church  which  has 
laid  such  emphasis  upon  the  value  of  system  in 
Christian  teaching,  worship  and  service. 

We  find  the  same  principle  in  their  creed  state¬ 
ments.  In  the  Baptist  Church,  as  we  saw,  there 
are  no  authoritative  creed  statements.  The  Bible 
is  their  creed  and  large  liberty  is  left  to  individual 
interpretation.  In  the  Congregational  Church 
each  local  church  formulates  and  adopts  its  own 
creed.  But  in  the  Episcopal  Church  these  matters 
are  not  left  to  the  judgment  of  some  local  church  or 

72 


The  Episcopal  Church 


of  some  individual  minister.  The  Thirty-Nine 
Articles  of  Religion,  the  Apostles’  Creed,  the  Nicene 
Creed,  and  the  Catechism  tell  the  Episcopalian 
what  he  is  to  believe.  Here  are  the  articles  of  his 
faith  set  forth  in  definite  terms  all  serving  to  main¬ 
tain  the  idea  of  system  and  method  in  religious 
conviction!  Let  all  things  be  done  in  order,  this 
church  says,  in  worship,  in  the  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  in  shaping  the  ideals  which  are  vital 
to  character.  It  steadily  asserts  the  high  value  of 
system. 

II 

This  church  makes  a  further  distinctive  contribu¬ 
tion  in  emphasizing  the  importance  of  good  taste. 
“  Let  all  things  be  done  decently  ”  as  well  as  in 
order.  Worship  the  Lord  “  in  spirit  and  in  truth,” 
but  worship  him  also  “  in  the  beauty  of  holiness.” 
Let  there  be  a  clear  sense  of  the  artistic  values  in 
this  spiritual  ministry! 

God  is  a  God  of  righteousness,  but  He  is  also  a 
God  of  grace.  He  has  filled  the  whole  earth  with 
beauty,  —  rainbows  and  sunsets,  dewdrops  and 
twinkling  stars,  lovely  valleys  and  glorious  moun¬ 
tains,  as  well  as  wheat  fields,  potato  patches  and 
apple  orchards!  In  that  section  of  the  earth  which 
is  untouched  by  the  hand  of  man  beauty  pre¬ 
dominates  over  utility,  —  there  are  many  more  wild 
flowers  than  there  are  wild  fruits  or  wild  vegetables. 
God  is  a  lover  of  beauty  and  He  has  placed  deep 

73 


The  Larger  Faith 


within  the  hearts  of  His  children  the  capacity  for 
admiration.  He  has  made  woman,  the  very  sum¬ 
mit  of  his  creation,  the  loveliest  object  upon  which 
the  eye  of  man  can  rest.  The  leaders  of  worship 
in  this  church  call  upon  the  people  to  worship  this 
Lover  of  beauty  in  the  beauty  of  holiness. 

The  Episcopal  Church  stands  beyond  any  other 
for  good  taste  in  religion,  for  decorum  in  worship 
and  for  graceful  architecture.  The  church  buildings 
of  no  other  denomination  in  the  various  cities  of  the 
land  show  such  good  proportions  and  such  fine  out¬ 
lines  as  do  the  churches  of  this  faith.  The  place  of 
worship  of  an  Episcopal  church  may  be  inexpensive 
in  some  small  community,  but  it  will  have  a 
churchly  look.  The  exterior  as  well  as  the  interior 
will  suggest  the  thought  of  worship.  You  will  know 
at  a  glance  that  it  is  not  a  place  to  play  billiards 
or  to  buy  groceries  or  to  find  a  moving  picture  show. 
The  Episcopal  church  has  set  itself  resolutely 
against  the  habit  of  fitting  up  churches  with  opera 
chairs  or  decorating  the  walls  as  one  might  deco¬ 
rate  a  restaurant  or  a  ladies’  parlor  in  a  fine  hotel. 

All  this  has  had  and  must  have  an  important 
influence  upon  the  inner  life.  It  is  not  a  mere 
matter  of  aesthetics,  it  is  a  matter  of  devotion. 
It  develops  a  habit  of  mind  which  has  immense 
significance.  The  Episcopalians  do  not  go  to  church 
as  a  rule  so  much  to  hear  eloquent  sermons  or  to 
be  entertained  by  some  splendid  music  —  they  go 
to  worship  and  bow  down  before  the  Lord,  their 

74 


The  Episcopal  Church 


Maker.  Every  one  of  them  has  put  into  his  hand 
at  the  door  of  his  pew  a  Prayer  Book,  indicating 
that  he  is  there  not  merely  to  be  preached  to,  but 
to  pray  on  his  own  behalf.  And  when  you  enter  an 
Episcopal  church  any  day  of  the  week,  Sunday, 
Monday,  Tuesday  or  Wednesday,  you  will  find 
there  an  atmosphere  of  worship,  of  aspiration,  of 
yearning  for  fellowship  with  the  unseen.  All  this 
has  high  value  for  the  development  of  the  religious 
life. 

This  habit  of  good  taste  shows  in  their  liturgy. 
These  aids  to  worship  are  not  only  systematic, 
covering  almost  every  conceivable  form  of  human 
aspiration,  they  are  also  beautiful.  I  have  used  the 
Episcopal  Prayer  Book  for  thirty  odd  years  inti¬ 
mately  and  many  of  its  prayers  I  know  by  heart. 
Let  a  man  open  his  Bible  and,  as  he  begins  to  read, 
utter  that  prayer  which  is  appointed  for  the  Second 
Sunday  in  Advent:  “  Blessed  Lord  who  hast 
caused  all  holy  scriptures  to  be  written  for  our 
learning,  grant  that  we  may  in  such  wise  hear  them, 
read,  mark,  learn  and  inwardly  digest  them  that 
by  patience  and  comfort  of  thy  holy  word  we  may 
embrace  and  ever  hold  fast  the  blessed  hope  of 
everlasting  life  which  thou  hast  given  us  in  our 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.”  It  puts  him  in  the  mood 
to  read  his  Bible  aright. 

Let  him  begin  the  day,  if  he  will,  with  that  Col¬ 
lect  which  stands  at  the  beginning  of  the  Com¬ 
munion  service:  “  Almighty  God,  unto  whom  all 

75 


The  Larger  Faith 


hearts  are  open,  all  desires  known,  and  from  whom 
no  secrets  are  hid,  cleanse  the  thoughts  of  our 
hearts  by  the  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit  that  we 
may  perfectly  love  thee  and  worthily  magnify  thy 
holy  name,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.” 

And  when  he  comes  to  the  close  of  the  day  and 
gathers  his  family  around  him  for  evening  prayer 
before  they  lie  down  to  rest,  let  him  end  his  devo¬ 
tions  with  that  prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom : 
“  Almighty  God  who  hast  given  us  grace  at  this 
time  with  one  accord  to  make  our  common  sup¬ 
plications  unto  thee,  and  dost  promise  that  when 
two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  thy  name 
thou  wilt  grant  their  requests,  fulfill  now,  O  Lord, 
the  desires  and  petitions  of  thy  servants  as  may  be 
most  expedient  for  them,  granting  us  in  this  world 
knowledge  of  thy  truth  and  in  the  world  to  come 
life  everlasting.” 

We  find  in  these  and  in  other  sections  of  their 
liturgy  the  very  acme  of  good  taste,  the  perfection 
of  literary  form.  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
can  be  set  alongside  of  the  King  James  version  of 
the  Bible  and  Shakespeare.  We  find  also  a  rich 
fund  of  spiritual  devotion.  When  we  hear  some 
man  praying  awkwardly  and  ungrammatically 
perhaps,  or  still  worse  oratorically,  we  long  for  the 
chaste  and  reverent  simplicity  of  the  ritual.  When 
some  man  begins  to  pray  and  then  ceases  to  pray 
(although  he  keeps  on  talking  with  his  eyes  shut, 
in  a  kind  of  general  harangue  to  the  Lord  about  his 

76 


The  Episcopal  Church 


favorite  hobby,  presenting  arguments  for  some 
pet  conviction  of  his  own,  but  losing  the  sentee  of 
direct  personal,  devout  address  to  God)  we  wish 
that  he  had  in  his  hand  some  competent  guide  for 
his  public  petitioris.  I  would  not  advocate  the 
surrender  of  what  is  called  “  voluntary  prayer,” 
where  a  minister  voices  the  needs  of  those  he  would 
lead  in  prayer  in  words  of  his  own  choosing.  Where 
this  is  well  done  I  believe  its  immediate  helpfulness 
may  rise  above  that  of  all  fixed  liturgies.  But 
where  it  is  done  in  thoughtless  or  slovenly  or 
oratorical  fashion,  it  becomes  an  offense  to  taste 
and  conscience  alike. 

This  contribution  of  good  taste  is  no  light  matter. 
We  want  men  to  be  upright  in  heart  —  that  lies 
at  the  foundation  of  everything.  We  want  a  man 
to  be  just,  true  and  clean.  But  if  he  is  also  cultured 
and  well  mannered,  so  much  the  better!  His 
strength  of  conviction  and  his  devotion  to  principle 
are  all  very  well  —  we  cannot  get  along  without 
those  fine  qualities,  —  but  if  you  are  coming  into 
any  kind  of  close  contact  with  him,  if  you  are  going 
to  marry  him  for  example,  then  you  would  also 
like  to  have  him  well  bred  and  refined. 

The  Episcopal  Church  in  its  whole  method  of 
nurture  and  of  culture  undertakes  to  accomplish 
just  that.  It  says,  “  Blessed  are  the  gentle,  for  they 
shall  inherit  the  earth.”  It  seeks  to  develop  gentle¬ 
men  and  gentlewomen.  The  saturative  influence 
of  good  architecture,  of  tasteful  interiors,  of  good 

77 


The  Larger  Faith 


stained  glass,  where  the  colors  do  not  eat  each  other 
up,  of  a  finely  framed  liturgy,  of  noble  music  and 
of  the  spirit  of  decorum  in  worship  —  all  this 
exercises  a  refining  influence  upon  even  the  rudest 
nature  which  in  the  course  of  years  of  such  devotion 
finds  fruitage  in  qualities  of  mind  and  heart  which 
have  high  value. 

This  is  one  reason  perhaps  why  the  Episcopal 
Church  has  more  influence  upon  the  actors  and 
artists  of  the  country  than  all  the  other  churches 
put  together.  The  “  Little  Church  Around  the 
Corner  ”  in  New  York,  where  so  many  theatrical 
people,  so  many  artists  and  authors  have  been 
married  and  buried,  is  of  course  an  Episcopal 
church.  The  Episcopalians  have  been  more  gener¬ 
ous  patrons  of  the  theatre  and  of  the  arts  than  have 
been  some  of  the  other  bodies  of  Christians,  but 
their  mode  of  worship  and  their  general  method  are 
most  attractive  to  those  who  are  constantly  striving 
for  the  artistic.  The  Actors  Church  League  has 
been  a  great  influence  for  good  in  promoting  higher 
standards  of  conduct  on  the  stage.  Let  all  things 
be  done  righteously  indeed  but  beautifully  and 
artistically  as  well!  Along  this  line  of  good  taste, 
the  Episcopal  Church  has  made  an  important  con¬ 
tribution  to  our  total  Christianity. 

Ill 

This  church  has  also  a  high  sense  of  the  historic 
values.  The  word  “  Episcopal  ”  comes  from  the 

78 


The  Episcopal  Church 


Greek  word  “  Episcopos ,”  one  who  overlooks, 
oversees,  that  is  to  say,  a  bishop.  The  Episcopal 
Church  is  a  church  governed  by  bishops  and 
these  bishops  attach  great  importance  to  what 
they  call  “  the  historic  Episcopate.”  They  be¬ 
lieve  that  something  of  the  Episcopate  can  be 
traced  back  through  the  long  history  of  the  Church 
to  the  time  of  the  Apostles,  that  their  clergy¬ 
men  are  ordained  by  bishops,  who  in  turn  were 
ordained  by  other  bishops,  who  in  turn  were 
ordained  by  other  bishops,  and  so  on  back  to  the 
days  of  Peter  and  Paul.  And  some  of  them,  who 
have  the  poetic  temperament  rather  than  the  minds 
of  exact  historians,  like  to  think  that  a  certain 
mysterious  grace  has  been  handed  down  in  this 
way  from  Christ  through  his  apostles  and  from  his 
apostles  through  this  long  line  of  bishops  to  the 
ministers  of  that  church,  rendering  them  more 
competent  to  administer  the  sacraments  than  are 
the  ministers  of  religion  who  do  not  stand  in  this 
direct  line  of  Apostolic  Succession. 

It  is  a  lovely  picture,  interesting  if  not  altogether 
verifiable.  I  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  it,  for  the 
purpose  of  these  chapters,  as  I  stated  at  the  outset, 
is  not  controversial.  I  have  never  been  able  to 
find  very  much  about  bishops  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  except  in  the  sense  that  all  their  ministers 
were  bishops,  that  is  to  say,  leaders  and  overseers 
of  the  flock  of  Christ. 

I  have  never  been  able  to  discern  any  peculiar 

79 


The  Larger  Faith 


or  exceptional  usefulness  attaching  to  a  man 
merely  because  he  was  ordained  by  a  bishop.  His 
usefulness  as  a  minister  of  Christ  seemed  to  depend 
upon  his  physical  and  his  mental,  his  moral,  his 
social  and  his  spiritual  makeup.  His  efficiency 
was  determined  by  the  measure  of  his  gifts,  by  the 
degree  of  his  consecration  to  God  and  by  the  readi¬ 
ness  of  his  sympathy  with  the  needs  of  his  fellows. 
Oftentimes  these  fine  qualities  are  possessed  by  a 
man  who  was  ordained  by  a  bishop,  and  just  as 
often  —  rather  more  often  in  fact,  because  so  many 
more  men  are  ordained  by  other  methods  —  they 
are  possessed  by  men  who  were  ordained  by  groups 
of  elders  or  by  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  a  few 
fellow  pastors. 

This  sense  of  historic  values  leads  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  to  maintain 
close  and  cordial  relations  with  the  Church  of  Eng¬ 
land.  Its  bishops  attend  the  Lambeth  Conference 
of  Bishops  in  London.  Its  clergymen  are  frequently 
invited  to  preach  in  the  pulpits  of  the  Anglican 
Church.  Its  first  bishops  were  consecrated  by 
English  bishops.  Its  Prayer  Book  is  modelled 
after  the  book  of  Common  Prayer  in  the  Anglican 
Church.  And  the  Anglican  Church  has  historic 
relations  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  from 
which  it  broke  away  at  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 
Henry,  partly  because  of  his  quarrel  with  the 
Pope  over  his  domestic  affairs,  and  partly  in  a  spirit 
of  sturdy  independence,  which  had  already  become 

80 


The  Episcopal  Church 


a  national  trait,  decided  to  throw  off  the  rule  of 
the  Papacy.  Thus  the  Church  of  England  became 
independent  of  the  authority  at  Rome.  But 
through  its  stately  cathedrals  and  its  noble  liturgy, 
both  of  which  are  older  than  the  Protestant  Refor¬ 
mation,  the  Anglican  Church  has  kept  that  sense 

\ 

of  contact  with  the  past.  And  by  its  close  relations 
with  the  older  Church,  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
America  has  kept  alive  that  same  high  sense  of 
historic  values. 

We  find  this  same  sense  of  a  vital  touch  with  the 
past  in  its  Prayer  Book.  Here  in  “  The  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  ”  used  in  every  Episcopal  church 
are  the  Psalms  of  Israel,  the  ancient  hymns  of  the 
Jewish  Church,  the  finest  expressions  of  the  devo¬ 
tional  spirit  among  the  Hebrews!  Here  are  the 
words  of  Christ  and  of  his  apostles  in  the  Gospel 
and  the  Epistle  for  the  day!  Here  are  the  liturgic 
forms  of  the  early  Church,  the  Venite,  the  Magnifi¬ 
cat,  the  Benedictus,  the  Prayer  of  St.  Chrysostom 
and  all  the  rest!  Here  are  prayers  and  collects 
taken  from  the  Greek  and  Latin  churches  of 
medieval  days!  Here  are  choice  bits  of  liturgic 
expression  from  the  best  devotion  of  all  time! 
The  Prayer  Book  is  like  a  great  Cathedral,  reaching 
back  to  Solomon’s  Temple  and  the  songs  of  David, 
holding  within  it  all  those  contributions  of  deep 
piety,  of  fervency  of  spirit  and  of  fine  phraseology. 
When  we  use  it,  we  join  with  ancient  saints,  with 
the  churches  throughout  the  world  and  with  all  our 

8.1 


The  Larger  Faith 


fellow  believers  in  humbly  and  heartily  voicing  in 
noble  words  our  common  worship  of  Almighty  God. 

This  high  sense  of  historic  values  has  enabled 
the  Episcopal  Church  successfully  to  avoid  division 
in  its  own  ranks.  It  is  a  church  which  is  by  no 
means  all  of  one  mind.  It  has  its  “  high  church 
party  ”  and  its  “  low  church  party  ”  and  its 
“  broad  church  party.”  But  however  these  men 
may  differ  in  conviction  at  many  points  and  in 
practice  at  many  more,  they  all  manage  to  move 
along  together  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  in  the 
bond  of  peace. 

The  Methodist  Church  in  this  country  was 
divided  over  the  question  of  slavery.  In  1845  it 
was  split  into  two  large  churches,  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  South.  These  two  branches  of  one  great 
church  have  remained  apart  to  this  hour.  They 
are  identical  in  polity,  in  their  adherence  to  the 
Twenty-five  Articles  of  Religion,  in  the  whole 
spirit  and  method  of  their  work.  They  have 
adopted  a  common  hymnal,  so  that  the  two 
churches  sing  God’s  praise  Sunday  after  Sunday 
out  of  the  same  hymn-book.  But  they  remain 
apart,  divided  by  a  question  which  all  but  divided 
our  country  in  those  fateful  years  of  1861-5. 

The  Baptist  Church  and  the  Presbyterian 
Church  were  likewise  divided  over  the  question 
of  slavery  and  by  sectional  strife.  But  the  Episco¬ 
pal  Church,  while  the  meetings  of  its  General 

82 


The  Episcopal  Church 


Convention  were  interrupted  during  the  Civil  War, 
was  never  divided.  When  the  war  was  over  the 
General  Convention  met  again  in  1865  in  Phila¬ 
delphia,  the  City  of  Brotherly  Love;  the  Southern 
bishops  took  their  places  again  beside  the  Northern 
bishops  and  everything  went  on  as  before.  That 
deep  sense  of  their  historic  past  served  to  bring  all 
sections  together  at  the  close  of  the  war  and  it  has 
served  at  all  times  as  a  splendid  bulwark  against  the 
spirit  of  division. 

Here  then  are  elements  in  that  larger  faith  which 
have  value  for  us  all!  The  worth  of  system  and 
method  in  religious  worship  and  service,  the  value 
of  good  taste  and  decorum  in  that  refinement  of 
life  which  belongs  to  character  at  its  best  and  that 
sense  of  historic  values  which  serves  to  link  us  up 
with  all  that  is  good  in  our  past. 

In  this  newer  country  where  so  much  has  been 
left  to  ill-considered  choices  made  on  the  spur  of 
the  moment,  in  this  land  where  rough  and  ready 
people,  bent  upon  those  material  achievements 
necessary  to  the  development  of  a  new  region, 
sometimes  forget  all  that  is  due  to  taste  and  artistic 
sense,  in  this  land  where  everything  is  fresh  and 
unworn,  where  the  sense  of  contact  with  the  past 
is  much  less  felt  than  would  be  the  case  in  an 
older  country  like  England,  Italy  or  France,  the 
Episcopal  Church  has  been  performing  steadily  a 
high  office  in  the  unfolding  of  our  national  life. 


83 


The  Larger  Faith 


May  I  speak  of  yet  one  other  service  which  the 
Episcopal  Church  has  rendered  to  the  people  in 
this  fair  land,  by  the  aid  she  has  given  in  maintain¬ 
ing  a  warm  and  real  sympathy  between  that  branch 
of  the  English-speaking  race  which  lives  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water  and  that  branch  which  has 
its  home  on  this  side.  Here  are  two  great  English- 
speaking  democracies,  put  in  trust,  as  we  believe, 
with  certain  political  and  religious  ideals,  which 
have  entered  vitally  into  the  shaping  of  our  civiliza¬ 
tion! 

There  are  just  two  ways  for  nations  to  deal  with 
each  other  —  one  is  on  the  basis  of  military  force, 
upon  the  principle  that  might  may  usurp  the  place 
of  right,  and  that  any  nation  may  undertake  to 
impose  its  will  upon  other  nations,  if  it  possesses 
the  power.  That  way  lies  ruin,  as  we  have  seen  in 
these  nine  fateful  years  of  painful  history  since  the 
summer  of  1914. 

The  other  method  is  by  the  enthronement  of 
the  principle  of  public  right  as  the  governing  ideal  in 
all  national  and  international  affairs.  It  is  to  this 
latter  idea  that  the  great  English-speaking  race 
stands  openly  committed.  An  imaginary  line  divides 
us  on  our  northern  boundary  from  territory 
belonging  to  the  most  powerful  empire  in  the  world. 
More  than  a  hundred  years  ago  we  entered  into  an 
agreement  with  that  people  that  no  frowning  fort 
should  mar  that  boundary  line  and  that  no 
war-ship  from  our  shores  or  from  theirs  should 

84 


The  Episcopal  Church 


trouble  the  peaceful  waters  of  the  Great  Lakes. 
The  agreement  has  been  scrupulously  observed. 
The  great  idea  of  public  right  enthroned  in  their 
hearts  and  in  ours  has  served  to  keep  the  peace 
and  to  settle  all  the  differences  which  have 
arisen  for  more  than  a  century.  So  may  it  be  ever ! 
The  Church  which  has  aided  mightily  in  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  that  friendship  between  those  who  speak 
a  common  tongue  and  live  in  a  fine  sense  of  agree¬ 
ment  as  to  their  moral  purposes  and  political 
methods,  deserves  the  gratitude  of  all  mankind. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH 


Chapter  V 


The  Lutheran  Church 

We  stand  at  a  long  remove  in  miles,  in  time  and 
in  mood  from  the  situation  where  Martin  Luther 
nailed  his  Declaration  of  Independence  to  the  door 
of  the  Church  in  Wittenberg.  The  main  principles 
which  found  expression  in  the  Protestant  Reforma¬ 
tion  have  to  a  great  extent  been  taken  up  into  the 
common  consciousness  of  the  modern  world.  And 
in  making  those  principles  familiar  and  operative 
the  Lutheran  Church  has  borne  a  significant  and 
honorable  part. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  was  a  great  religious 
movement  and  it  was  also  in  the  broadest  and  best 
sense  political.  It  voiced  a  profound  dissatisfaction 
with  the  existing  order  which  had  spread  over  an 
entire  continent.  It  involved  a  sharp  break  with 
that  mighty  organization  which  had  come  to 
dominate  in  its  own  interest  not  only  the  religious 
life  but  the  wealth  and  the  learning,  the  social  life 
and  the  governments  of  Europe.  It  was  a  move¬ 
ment  which  called  for  the  coming  of  a  new  heaven 
of  religious  thought  and  of  a  new  earth  wherein 
should  dwell  a  finer  and  less  legalistic  form  of 
righteousness.  It  was  one  of  “  the  days  of  the  Son 
of  Man.”  Those  who  had  eyes  to  see  saw  again  the 
veil  of  the  Temple  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to 
the  bottom. 


89 


The  Larger  Faith 


When  Protestantism  stood  up  to  challenge  the 
right  of  a  mighty  system  to  rule  the  lives  of  men, 
it  had  emblazoned  upon  its  shield  the  promise  of  a 
new  method  and  a  new  spirit  for  all  who  would  fear 
God  and  work  righteousness.  Its  four  main  princi¬ 
ples  were  these: 

1.  The  right  of  direct  and  immediate  access  to 
God  for  every  soul,  with  no  sort  of  priestly  media¬ 
tion  or  ecclesiastical  barrier  blocking  the  way.  “He 
is  not  far  from  any  one  of  us,”  and  “  whosoever 
will  may  come.” 

2.  Its  doctrine  of  grace,  as  opposed  to  the  idea 
of  salvation  by  penance  or  by  observances  or  by 
advances  made  from  some  treasury  of  merit  under 
priestly  control  or  by  “  works.”  “  By  grace  are 
ye  saved  through  faith  and  that  not  of  yourselves  ” 
for  Eternal  Life  is  “  the  gift  of  God.” 

3.  The  authority  of  the  Scriptures  —  not  the 
decrees  of  councils,  nor  the  words  of  popes,  nor 
the  traditions  of  the  elders,  but  the  mind  of  Christ, 
as  it  lies  reflected  supremely  upon  the  pages  of 
the  New  Testament,  was  to  be  the  court  of  last 
appeal. 

4.  The  right  of  private  judgment,  which  carries 
with  it  by  implication  all  that  is  contained  in  our 
modern  program  of  political  and  spiritual  democ¬ 
racy.  Every  man  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  he  is  a 
man  has  the  same  God-given  privilege  of  judging, 
of  interpreting,  and  of  applying  these  truths  of 
Church  and  State  to  his  personal  needs  and  to  the 

90 


The  Lutheran  Church 


needs  of  the  social  order,  which  belongs  to  every 
other  man. 

How  full  of  promise  were  those  four  main  ideas 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation!  In  our  day  and  in 
our  own  section  of  the  Christian  world  they  have 
become  the  commonplaces  of  thought  and  practice. 
But  in  that  period  when  priestcraft  had  success¬ 
fully  overlaid  the  minds  of  men  with  burdens 
grievous  to  be  borne,  the  proclamation  of  these 
fundamental  truths  caused  the  heart  to  leap. 

They  made  clear  the  fact  that  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  mere  history  of  something 
sacred  and  beautiful,  which  happened  long  ago  for 
our  advantage.  It  is  not  an  elaborate  system  of 
artificial  observances  imposed  upon  us  by  external 
authority.  It  is  not  a  collection  of  theories  about 
things  quite  removed  from  the  daily  secular 
interests  of  men.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a 
mode  of  life  upon  which  any  soul  anywhere  may 
enter  immediately  by  the  grace  of  God  for  his  own 
eternal  good  and  for  the  benefit  of  all  those  who  are 
touched  by  the  hand  of  his  influence. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  stood  out  also 
against  a  false  asceticism  which  had  maneuvered 
itself  into  a  privileged  place  of  sanctity.  This 
was  in  some  measure  due  to  the  wholesome  human¬ 
ity  of  Luther  himself  who  insisted  that  “  the  Chris¬ 
tian  life  should  be  humble  and  devout  but  buoyant 
and  joyous,”  as  well.  It  was  due  even  more  to  the 
fact  that  it  took  its  standards  and  its  spirit  from 

91 


The  Larger  Faith 


i 


the  original  source.  The  gospel  of  Christ  is  not 
in  the  main  a  gospel  of  cutting  down  and  lopping 
off,  a  gospel  of^'giving  up  and  of  going  back  to  sit 
down  in  somber  expectation  of  some  better  satis¬ 
faction  in  the  world  to  come.  The  gospel  of  Christ 
is  a  gospel  of  life.  It  offers  a  program  and  a  dy¬ 
namic  for  brave,  manly,  full-fledged,  useful,  joyous 
life.  “  This  do,”  it  says,  as  its  Author  said  at  the 
start,  “  and  thou  shalt  live.”  It  comes  that  men 
may  have  life  and  have  it  more  abundantly. 

The  Protestant  Reformation  was  indeed  a 
“  protest  ”  against  existing  errors  and  abuses. 
But  it  had  also  its  own  positive  program  for  the 
lives  of  men.  It  would  have  said  in  those  days 
that  no  man  is  a  Protestant  simply  because  he 
denies  the  final  authority  of  the  Pope  or  refuses  to 
attend  Mass,  or  declines  the  intimate  experiences 
of  the  confessional.  He  is  only  a  Protestant  when 
he  is  putting  his  full  strength  into  living  the  life  of 
a  responsible  citizen  in  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
answerable  only  to  his  Maker,  and  sustained  by  his 
sense  of  fellowship  with  all  those  who  show  the 
spirit  of  the  Master. 

Therefore  the  faith  of  the  Protestant  offered 
to  the  souls  of  thousands  of  men,  puzzled  and 
wearied  by  a  system  which  had  brought  them 
neither  peace  nor  strength,  a  splendid  promise  of 
that  life  which  is  life  indeed.  Within  fifty  years 
of  the  time  when  Luther  faced  the  Diet  of  Worms 
it  had  won  a  magnificent  success.  In  England  and 

92 


The  Lutheran  Church 


in  Scotland,  in  Sweden  and  in  Denmark,  in  Prussia, 
in  Saxony  and  in  the  Netherlands,  it  had  triumphed. 
In  all  the  other  countries  on  this  side  of  the  Alps  it 
seemed  to  be  on  the  very  edge  of  victory.  It  came 
with  all  the  promise  of  a  new  day  for  northern  and 
western  Europe. 

How  far  has  that  promise  been  fulfilled  in  its 
actual  performance?  It  is  a  melancholy  fact  for 
us  that  in  those  first  fifty  years,  Protestantism 
gained  in  many  sections  of  Christendom  its  highest 
ascendancy.  It  gained  an  ascendancy  which  on 
divers  fields  was  speedily  lost  and  never  again 
regained. 

Its  earlier  victories  over  an  easy-going,  corrupt 
Church  were  rapid  and  decisive.  But  there  came  a 
counter-reformation  when  the  advances  of  the 
Protestant  faith  were  checked  and  held  by  another 
quality  of  church  life  which  had  in  it  the  rigor  and 
the  vigor  of  Ignatius  Loyola.  Then  the  rapid 
victories  of  Protestantism  came  to  an  end.  And 
when  Protestantism  itself  became  rich  and  proud, 
it  had  no  longer  its  former  strength  of  appeal.  As 
it  was  in  the  first  century,  so  it  was  in  the  seven¬ 
teenth,  and  so  it  will  be  ever.  It  is  the  movement 
which  is  “  lifted  up  from  the  earth  ”  by  discipline 
and  self-sacrifice,  which  draws  men  to  it. 

Many  a  religious  movement  has  shown  itself 
magnificent  in  protest,  and  then  has  become 
ineffective  when  once  the  protest  was  accepted  and 
the  hour  had  struck  for  wise,  constructive  action. 

93 


The  Larger  Faith 


The  Unitarian  reaction  against  an  impossible 
orthodoxy  and  the  Christian  Science  movement  as 
a  protest  against  materialism,  have  shown  them¬ 
selves  strong  in  criticism  —  they  have  not  been 
equally  strong  in  that  statesmanship  which  can 
develop  and  carry  through  large  policies  of  con¬ 
structive  effort. 

It  was  easy  for  men  to  draw  back  from  pardons 
and  indulgences,  from  magical  rites  and  from 
artificially  imposed  ceremonies.  It  was  easy  for 
them  to  insist  that  bread  was  bread  and  wine  was 
wine,  over  which  no  priest  had  any  more  trans¬ 
forming  power  than  the  unordained  laymen.  But 
the  hard  test  came  when  the  call  was  made  for  that 
clear-cut,  positive,  spiritual  energy  demanded  for 
the  renewal  and  direction  of  the  lives  of  men  and 
of  nations. 

No  form  of  religion  can  live  and  thrive  by  what 
it  denies.  It  can  only  live  and  thrive  by  what  it 
affirms  and  incarnates.  The  habit  of  mind  which 
is  critical  rather  than  constructive,  the  faith  which 
is  merely  pallid  and  feeble  in  the  distaste  it  shows 
for  some  of  the  foods  upon  which  the  souls  of  men 
are  fed,  the  whole  mood  which  is  more  intent  upon 
the  limitations  of  its  rivals  than  upon  the  excel¬ 
lences  it  can  show  in  its  own  militant  bearing  — 
no  one  of  these  is  destined  to  conquer.  The  nega¬ 
tive  mood  has  never  been  able  to  hold  its  own 
against  the  highly  organized  and  resolute  Church 
of  Rome,  to  say  nothing  of  winning  that  harder 

94 


The  Lutheran  Church 


and  more  honorable  victory  in  subduing  the  world, 
the  flesh  and  the  devil. 

One  of  the  reasons  why  Protestantism  has  not 
been  more  successful  in  fulfilling  that  early  promise 
is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  it  has  never  been 
quite  brave  enough  to  deal  with  this  human  life  of 
ours  in  its  entirety.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
with  its  seven  sacraments  reaching  out  through  all 
the  main  crises  of  human  life  from  the  baptism  of 

a  newborn  babe  to  the  last  unction  for  the  dying, 

\ 

with  its  openly  proclaimed  or  covertly  held  belief 
in  the  temporal  sovereignty  of  the  Church,  with  its 
steady  reach  for  the  control  of  the  forces  of  educa¬ 
tion  and  with  its  confessional  projecting  the  power 
of  the  Church  into  the  most  intimate  relations  of 
daily  life,  has  undertaken  the  spiritual  supervision 
of  man’s  entire  career. 

I  covet  for  our  Protestant  faith  some  of  that 
same  imperialism.  I  would  not  see  the  State  or  the 
school,  the  home  or  the  place  of  trade  controlled 
by  the  Church,  but  I  would  that  all  these  interests 
might  be  brought  into  obedience  to  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  Has  the  Protestant  Church  been  bold 
enough  to  accept  for  itself  openly  the  entire  pro¬ 
gram  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth?  Has  it  set 
itself  resolutely  to  the  renewal  of  this  entire  fabric 
of  civic,  commercial  and  social  life  after  the  method 
of  the  Master?  The  saving  of  privileged  souls 
here  and  there  out  of  the  moral  wreck  is  not  enough. 
The  careful  nurture  of  the  descendants  of  those 

95 


The  Larger  Faith 


fortunate  beings  who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower , 
the  habit  of  attacking  human  want  piecemeal  by 
petty  charities,  the  making  of  a  fair  show  in  the 
flesh  by  some  hopeful  measure  of  rescue  work  on 
mission  fields,  does  not  appeal  to  the  moral  imagina¬ 
tion  of  the  masculine  half  of  the  race;  and  it  is 
losing  its  power  with  the  more  patient  part  of  our 
population. 

Suppose  that  the  Protestant  Church  for  the  last 
four  centuries  in  its  hymns  and  in  its  prayers,  in 
its  sermons  and  in  its  lay  practice  had  been  stand¬ 
ing  more  clearly  for  the  principle  of  equality  before 
the  law,  for  a  more  democratic  spirit  in  the  control 
of  our  great  industries,  for  a  more  equitable  distribu¬ 
tion  of  the  good  things  of  life  between  those  who 
toil  with  their  heads  and  those  who  toil  with  their 
hands,  for  the  end  of  all  class  legislation  and  all 
plundering  of  the  many  for  the  profit  of  the  few, 
for  the  banishment  of  that  moral  degradation 
which  ensues  where  the  conditions  of  ill-requited 
toil  become  inhuman,  for  the  removal  of  race 
prejudice  and  hatred,  and  for  the  development  of 
that  quality  and  measure  of  national  and  inter¬ 
national  morality  which  would  avert  war  — 
suppose,  I  say,  that  we  had  been  steadily  exalting 
in  our  Protestant  faith  that  imperialism  of  thNe 
Christ-spirit  in  all  these  relations  of  the  common 
life!  Would  not  our  Protestantism  today  be  much 
further  on  the  road  toward  the  performance  of  its 
early  promise? 


96 


The  Lutheran  Church 


In  the  Saturday  evening  editions  of  many  of  our 
metropolitan  dailies  we  find  a  page  given  to  what 
is  called  in  bold  letters  and  in  pathetic  phrase, 
“  The  Religious  World.”  Heaven  save  the  mark! 
As  if  “  the  religious  world  ”  were  a  thing  apart 
from  the  world  described  on  the  front  page!  A 
thing  apart  from  the  life  portrayed  in  the  real  estate 
and  financial  columns,  on  the  pages  given  to  sport, 
to  labor  news,  and  to  social  events!  Where  on 
God’s  green  earth  is  “  the  religious  world  ”  if  not 
right  here  where  men  and  women  are  buying  and 
selling,  marrying  and  being  given  in  marriage, 
struggling  and  tempted,  broken  and  beaten  in  the 
battle  of  life! 

The  man  in  the  street  pictures  that  u  religious 
world  ”  oftentimes  as  a  little  toy  section  of  human 
life  off  to  one  side  where  men  of  peculiar  temper¬ 
ament  and  dress  are  busy  with  their  “  new  moons 
and  their  Sabbaths,”  their  incense,  and  their 
stained  glass,  leaving  the  great  interests  of  justice, 
mercy  and  truth  in  secular  life  to  go  their  way 
unblessed  and  undirected  by  that  spiritual  order 
in  whose  service  those  holy  men  are  supposed  to 
stand.  In  so  far  as  we  have  allowed  our  Protestant¬ 
ism  to  fall  into  that  caricature  of  its  real  self,  we 
have  no  right  to  expect  the  performance  of  its  early 
promise. 

I  have  written  thus  at  length  upon  the  general 
principles  involved  in  the  Protestant  Reformation 
because  the  Lutheran  Church,  more  than  any  other 

97 


The  Larger  Faith 


single  church  in  this  country,  has  emphasized  and 
perpetuated  the  prevailing  religious  attitude  in  that 
period  of  history.  “  Lutheranism  ”  according  to 
Doctor  Henry  Eyster  Jacobs  of  the  Lutheran 
Seminary  in  Philadelphia,  “  is  a  mode  of  viewing 
and  receiving  and  living  the  truths  of  Christian¬ 
ity.” 

It  is  differentiated  from  Presbyterianism  which 
it  resembles  at  many  points  in  polity  and  method, 
by  being  highly  Christocentric,  to  use  a  technical 
term,  in  its  theology.  Calvinism  began  with  “  the 
divine  sovereignty  ”  and  through  its  doctrines  of 
“  unconditional  election,”  “  effectual  calling  ”  and 
“  irresistible  grace,”  worked  its  way  down  through 
the  problem  of  human  salvation.  Lutheranism 
begins  rather  with  the  joyous  experience  of  the 
believer  in  gaining  his  sense  of  peace  and  eternal 
salvation  through  his  personal  faith  in  and  fellow¬ 
ship  with  Jesus  Christ,  the  Saviour.  “  Give  me 
John  three,  sixteen,”  Luther  used  to  say,  “  ‘  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  He  gave  his  only  begotten 
Son  that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life,’  and  all  the  rest 
may  go.”  The  Lutheran  Church  rests  its  whole 
weight  upon  the  claim  that  men  are  saved  by  grace 
through  their  faith  in  Christ,  as  opposed  to  any 
sort  of  doctrine  which  looks  toward  the  securing  of 
the  divine  favor  by  “  works.”  The  reaction  against 
a  widespread  and  unworthy  use  of  indulgences  in 
the  Sixteenth  Century  produced  a  deep  conviction 

98 


The  Lutheran  Church 


as  to  the  insufficiency  of  “  works  ”  to  secure 
salvation. 

Lutheranism  “  places  no  limitations  upon  the 
extent  of  the  atonement  —  it  was  made  not  only 
for  all  men  but  for  all  sins.”  The  only  limitation 
lies  in  the  fact  “  that  some  for  whom  Christ  died 
perish  through  their  rejection  of  proffered  grace.” 

“  Lutheranism  knows  no  priesthood  but  that  of 
the  High-Priesthood  of  Christ  who  alone  and  once 
for  all  made  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  us  on  the 
altar  of  the  Cross.  So  intimate  is  the  union  between 
the  Saviour  and  the  soul  whom  He  has  saved,  that 
there  is  no  room  between  them  for  any  order  of  men 
to  conciliate  that  favor  of  which  the  redeemed 
soul  already  enjoys  the  most  indubitable  proofs.” 

The  very  center  of  its  religious  confidence  and 
of  its  manner  of  worship  for  the  Lutheran  is  to  be 
found  in  “  the  Word  of  God.”  By  the  public  and 
private  inculcation  of  the  truths  of  the  Bible,  by 
catechetical  instruction  and  by  the  generous  use  of 
Scripture  in  its  liturgy  of  worship,  the  Lutheran 
Church  seeks  to  make  men  wise  unto  salvation  and 
to  furnish  them  thoroughly  with  impulse  and  guid¬ 
ance  for  every  good  work. 

Luther’s  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  Ger¬ 
man  was  nothing  less  than  an  epoch-making 
achievement.  Translations  of  the  Bible  into 
German  had  been  made  prior  to  that  time  but  hav¬ 
ing  been  made  from  the  Vulgate  they  were  in  many 
parts  stiff  and  awkward  in  their  modes  of  expres- 

99 


The  Larger  Faith 


sion.  Luther  was  a  scholar  in  his  own  right,  trans¬ 
lating  directly  from  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek  — 
and  the  style  of  his  translation  was  idiomatic  and 
readable.  He  thus  rendered  a  notable  and  perma¬ 
nent  service  to  the  religious  life  of  his  country. 

The  Lutheran  Church  is  a  liturgical  church  and 
it  exalts  the  value  of  the  sacraments.  But  it  does 
not  allow  “  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  an 
inward  and  spiritual  grace  ”  to  interpose  itself  in 
any  mechanical  way  between  the  heart  of  the  Com¬ 
municant  and  the  Real  Presence  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  abiding  within  the  soul  of  the  believer.  “  The 
sole  value  of  a  sacrament,”  Luther  taught,  “  is 
its  witness  to  the  divine  promise.  It  strengthens 
faith.  It  seals  or  attests  the  God-given  pledge  of 
union  with  Christ  and  the  forgiveness  of  sins.” 

In  his  “  History  of  the  Christian  Church  ”  the 
late  Williston  Walker  of  Yale  University  placed  this 
high  appraisal  upon  the  work  of  the  man  whose 
name  is  borne  to  this  day  by  this  great  branch  of 
the  Church  of  Christ:  — 

“  Martin  Luther  is  one  of  the  few  men  of  whom 
it  may  be  said  that  the  history  of  the  world  was 
profoundly  altered  by  his  work.  Not  a  great 
scholar,  an  organizer  or  a  politician,  he  moved  men 
by  the  power  of  a  profound  religious  experience, 
resulting  in  unshakable  trust  in  God,  and  in  direct, 
immediate  and  personal  relations  to  Him,  which 
brought  a  confident  salvation  that  left  no  room  for 
the  elaborate  hierarchical  and  sacramental  struc- 


ioo 


The  Lutheran  Church 


tures  of  the  Middle  Ages.  He  spoke  to  his  country¬ 
men  as  one  profoundly  of  them  in  aspirations  and 
sympathies,  yet  above  them  by  virtue  of  a  vivid 
and  compelling  faith,  and  a  courage,  physical  and 
spiritual,  of  the  most  heroic  mould.  Yet  so  largely 
was  he  of  his  race,  in  his  virtues  and  limitations, 
that  he  is  understood  with  difficulty,  to  this  day, 
by  a  Frenchman  or  an  Italian,  and  even  Anglo- 
Saxons  have  seldom  appreciated  that  fulness  of 
sympathetic  admiration  with  which  a  German 
Protestant  speaks  his  name.  But  whether  honored 
or  opposed,  none  can  deny  his  preeminent  place  in 
the  history  of  the  Church.” 

With  the  same  robust  faith  exhibited  by  the  man 
whose  name  it  bears,  the  Lutheran  Church  of  our 
own  day  moves  out  singing  with  all  its  strength, 

“  A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God, 

A  bulwark  never  failing.” 

It  inscribes  upon  its  banners  those  same  great 
watchwords  which  have  come  down  across  the 
ages.  Conscious  of  its  direct  access  to  God,  heart¬ 
ened  to  the  core  by  its  doctrine  of  grace,  exalting 
the  Scriptures  as  furnishing  the  only  true  norm  of 
faith  and  practice,  it  seeks  to  establish  its  people 
for  all  time  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ  has 
made  them  free. 


IOI 


THE  METHODIST  CHURCH 


Chapter  VI 

The  Methodist  Church 

In  downright  practical  efficiency  it  would  be 
difficult  to  name  a  religious  leader  since  the  time  of 
St.  Paul  who  would  stand  higher  than  John  Wesley. 
He  got  results,  wide,  lasting  and  valuable  results. 

He  came  of  virile  stock  —  his  grandfather  had 
twenty-five  children,  and  his  own  mother,  Susan¬ 
nah  Wesley,  gave  birth  to  nineteen,  John  Wesley 
being  the  fifteenth.  He  was  a  man  of  culture  and 
scholarship  as  well  as  a  flaming  evangelist.  He 
was  a  graduate  of  Oxford  and  a  fellow  of  Lincoln 
College.  He  read  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics  at 
sight  and  spoke  French,  German,  Italian  and  a 
little  Spanish.  He  was  indefatigable  in  his  labors  — 
in  his  evangelistic  tours  he  travelled  over  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  thousand  miles,  far  enough  to  have 
taken  him  around  the  globe  ten  times.  He  preached 
over  forty  thousand  sermons.  He  was  accustomed 
to  rise  at  four  o’clock  in  the  morning  and  was  busy 
all  day,  oftentimes  far  into  the  night.  He  lived  this 
strenuous  life  up  to  his  eighty-fifth  year,  and  when 
he  passed  away  at  eighty-eight  he  had  been  preach¬ 
ing  with  all  his  accustomed  zeal  until  six  days 
before  his  death.  That  is  the  kind  of  a  Methodist 
Brother  Wesley  was,  and  he  has  bequeathed  a 
generous  portion  of  his  spirit  to  the  largest  Protes¬ 
tant  denomination  in  this  country. 

105 


The  Larger  Faith 


He  was  not  without  his  limitations  —  as  we 
travel  up  and  down  the  world  we  find  men  and  not 
angels.  The  human  race  has  been  put  ahead  in  the 
main  essentials  of  its  life  by  men  with  hearts  in 
their  breasts  and  with  mud  on  their  boots  like  the 
rest  of  us, 

John  Wesley  shared  in  some  of  the  superstitions 
of  his  time.  He  believed  in  witchcraft.  He  be¬ 
lieved  that  hysteria  was  demoniacal  possession. 
He  was  accustomed  to  decide  questions  by  opening 
the  Bible  at  random  and  taking  the  top  verse  on  the 
page.  He  preached  a  rousing  sermon,  a  copy  of 
which  I  have  in  my  library,  on  “  The  Cause  and 
Cure  of  Earthquakes,”  —  if  his  diagnosis  were 
correct  and  his  claims  verifiable  it  would  have  had 
great  value  for  the  city  of  San  Francisco  a  few 
years  ago. 

He  felt  that  many  of  the  events  in  his  own  life 
were  the  direct  results  of  miraculous  intervention, 
from  the  stopping  of  a  headache  to  the  cessation  of 
a  rain  storm,  that  he  might  preach  in  the  open  air. 
His  familiarity  with  the  Bible  was  in  no  sense 
critical ;  he  had  rather  a  popular  or  homiletic 
knowledge  of  it.  But  he  flung  himself  into  the  task 
of  inducing  men  to  forsake  their  sins  and  to  accept 
salvation  through  Jesus  Christ  beyond  any  man  of 
his  age.  He  did  it  with  a  magnificent  success,  in 
which  the  hearts  of  all  Christian  people  rejoice. 
And  although  he  did  not  sever  his  own  relations 
with  the  Church  of  England,  he  started  Methodism 

106 


The  Methodist  Church 


upon  its  world-wide  career  of  Christian  usefulness. 

“  The  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  ”  is  the  full 
name  of  this  branch  of  Christ’s  Church.  The  term 
“  Methodist  ”  was  at  first  a  nickname  like  the 
name  “  Christian.”  It  was  applied  derisively  to  a 
group  of  Oxford  students,  John  and  Charles  Wesley 
among  the  number,  because  in  their  determination 
to  deepen  their  Christian  life  they  lived  methodi¬ 
cally.  They  read  the  Scriptures  and  prayed  and 
took  communion;  they  visited  the  sick,  the  poor, 
the  imprisoned,  and  performed  other  acts  of  Chris¬ 
tian  service,  according  to  a  settled  rule  and  pro¬ 
gram.  They  were  so  exact  and  conscientious  in  it 
that  their  fellow  students  called  them  “  Metho¬ 
dists  ”  as  distinguished  from  men  who  lived  by 
mood  and  impulse.  They  accepted  the  title,  arid  it 
has  come  to  be  the  honorable  designation  of  this 
great  branch  of  the  Church. 

The  “  Methodist  Episcopal  ”  Church,  because  it 
too  is  governed  by  bishops,  like  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church!  The  Episcopalians  deny  the 
validity  of  the  ordination  of  the  Methodist  bishops 
because  the  first  one  was  not  ordained  by  a  bishop 
who  stood  in  the  line  of  what  they  like  to  call  “  The 

Apostolic  Succession.”  But  the  Roman  Catholics 

\ 

in  turn  deny  the  validity  of  the  ordination  of  the 
Episcopal  bishops  and  their  clergy,  so  the  honors 
are  even.  The  origin  of  this  “  historic  episco¬ 
pate  ”  is  so  lost  in  the  twilight  of  fable  as  not  to 
occasion  any  needful  disturbance  either  in  the 

107 


The  Larger  Faith 


minds  of  those  who  think  they  have  it,  or  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  are  perfectly  content  to  be 
without  it. 

I 

The  three  characteristic  contributions  made 
by  the  Methodist  Church  to  our  total  Christianity 
would  seem  to  be  these:  First,  its  splendid  Chris¬ 
tian  zeal.  The  Methodist  Church  shows  an  earnest¬ 
ness  and  an  enthusiasm  for  the  conversion  of  men, 
for  the  enlistment  of  believers  in  active  service  and 
for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  frontier 
and  needy  communities  beyond  any  other  church. 
When  an  ignorant  woman  heard  John  Wesley 
preach,  she  reported  to  her  neighbors,  —  “  He 
talks  as  if  he  was  just  dyin’  to  have  ye  converted.” 
It  was  the  eaVnest  desire  of  Wesley  to  reach  the 
hearts  of  men  and  lead  them  to  Christ  which  led 
him  to  break  away  from  the  dainty  religious  essay 
common  to  the  Anglican  pulpit  in  his  day,  and  to 
preach  without  notes  in  the  language  of  the  people, 
that  he  might  move  them  by  his  message.  It  is 
that  same  quality  of  earnestness  which  gives  fervor 
and  directness  to  the  preaching  of  the  Methodist 
pulpit  to  this  hour.  The  church  stands  as  a 
splendid  fulfillment  of  the  Apostolic  injunction, 
“  Preach  the  word;  be  instant  in  season,  out  of 
season;  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort.” 

It  was  their  zeal  which  led  them  to  utilize  so 
largely  lay  preachers  and  other  untrained  men  in 

108 


The  Methodist  Church 


their  early  history.  Wesley  and  his  followers 
licensed  local  preachers  and  sent  them  to^  needy 
places,  where  it  was  impossible  to  furnish  theo¬ 
logically  trained  clergymen.  Their  labors  have  been 
abundantly  blessed.  The  old  circuit  rider  who 
went  from  place  to  place,  preaching  in  school- 
houses,  in  the  homes  of  the  people,  in  tents  or  out  of 
doors,  wherever  a  congregation  could  be  gathered, 
often  had  little  theological  training  or  literary 
equipment.  He  carried  a  Bible,  a  hymn-book,  a 
copy  of  the  Methodist  discipline,  and  perhaps  a  vol¬ 
ume  of  Wesley’s  sermons  in  his  saddle  bags,  placing 
his  main  reliance  upon  the  sincerity  and  fervor  of 
his  own  heart  as  he  called  upon  men  to  forsake  their 
evil  ways  and  follow  Christ.  It  was  a  time  when 
books  were  not  common  as  they  are  now,  when 
newspapers  and  magazines  were  not  in  general 
circulation,  and  these  unschooled  men  found  ready 
acceptance  for  their  message.  They  rendered  a 
noble  service  in  laying  the  foundations  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  out  on  the  frontiers  in  thousands 
of  neglected  communities. 

When  I  speak  of  “  zeal  ”  I  do  not  mean  mere 
noise.  There  are  Methodists  who  have  learned  to 
observe  the  injunction  of  the  psalmist  —  “  Make  a 
joyful  noise  unto  the  Lord.”  I  do  not  mean  mere 
excitement  and  hysteria,  which  are  sometimes 
symptoms  of  nervous  disease  rather  than  of  health. 
I  mean  that  measure  of  spiritual  warmth  and  desire 
which  shows  itself  effective  in  moving  and  changing 

109 


The  Larger  Faith 


the  hearts  of  men.  This  genuine  zeal  has  borne 
solid  and  verifiable  fruit.  It  was  one  of  England’s 
reliable  historians  who  said  that  in  his  judgment 
“  John  Wesley  and  the  Methodist  revival  did  more 
to  save  England  from  the  horrors  and  excesses  of 
the  French  Revolution,”  which  worked  destruction 
as  well  as  renewal  among  their  neighbors  across  the 
Channel,  “  than  any  other  single  influence  which 
could  be  named.” 

In  our  own  country  it  is  widely  believed  that  the 
work  of  those  circuit  riders  and  pioneer  preachers, 
pushing  out  into  all  parts  of  our  land  and  estab¬ 
lishing  there  the  institutions  of  religion,  had  much 
to  do  with  the  development  of  that  moral  fiber 
which  made  our  country  equal  to  the  exacting 
demands  upon  it  in  the  struggles  of  the  Civil  War. 
Lincoln  said  one  day  to  a  group  of  Methodist 
preachers  who  called  at  the  White  House  to  pay 
their  respects  to  the  head  of  the  nation,  “  The 
Methodist  Church  has  sent  more  prayers  to  heaven 
for  the  Union  cause  and  more  men  into  the  field 
and  more  women  into  the  hospitals  than  any  other 
branch  of  Christ’s  Church.”  It  has  been  “a  zeal 
according  to  knowledge  ”  —  a  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart  and  its  needs  —  and  it  has  borne 
splendid  moral  fruitage  throughout  the  English- 
speaking  world. 

This  quality  of  zeal  has  tended  to  develop  preach¬ 
ing  ability  in  the  constituency  of  this  body.  The 
Methodist  Church  has  produced  a  great  number  of 

no 


The  Methodist  Church 


effective  preachers.  Some  of  these  have  been 
notable  in  the  history  of  our  country,  —  Stephen 
Olin  and  John  P.  Durbin,  Bishop  Matthew  Simpson 
and  Bishop  Randolph  S.  Foster,  Bishop  Thoburn 
of  India  and  Bishop  William  Taylor,  a  street 
preacher  in  San  Francisco  in  ’49  and  afterward 
conspicuous  for  his  missionary  labors  in  South 
America,  in  India  and  last  of  all  in  Africa.  And  of 
men  not  sufficiently  famous  to  be  noticed  in  history, 
this  church  has  developed  a  great  number  of  useful 
preachers,  who,  perhaps  lacking  in  the  finest  literary 
finish  and  in  the  fuller  measure  of  scholarship,  have 
shown,  nevertheless,  by  their  practical  efficiency 
in  interpreting  the  Scripture  and  in  bringing  help 
to  men,  the  power  of  direct  and  influential  address. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  trusted  to  the  zeal 
of  its  clergy,  and  to  the  warmth  and  reality  of  its 
own  spiritual  life,  for  the  maintenance  of  evangeli¬ 
cal  faith  rather  than  to  any  elaborate  creed  state¬ 
ments  or  standards  of  belief.  John  Wesley  abridged 
the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  Religion  of  the  English 
Church  into  twenty-five  and  these  briefer  articles 
have  constituted  the  creed  statement  of  the  Metho¬ 
dists  since  the  year  1784.  They  have  never  been 
changed  in  all  these  one  hundred  and  thirty-nine 
years  and  by  vote  of  the  General  Conference  in 
1832  it  was  made  unconstitutional  to  propose  any 
change  in  the  Articles  of  Religion.  The  fact  that 
this  creed  statement  contains  only  simple,  general 
references  to  the  fundamental  articles  of  religious 

hi 


The  Larger  Faith 


faith  has  saved  it  from  becoming  an  embarrassment 
to  this  body  of  Christians. 

The  Methodist  Church  has  been  troubled  little 
by  heresy  trials.  The  earnestness  and  zeal  of  the 
clergy  leave  them  little  time  for  that  speculative 
discussion  which  often  engenders  heresy  and  strife. 
And  it  is  one  of  the  significant  facts  of  modern 
church  history,  that  while  their  standards  are 
broad  and  simple  the  Methodist  Church  through¬ 
out  the  world  is  in  substantial  agreement  with 
itself  in  the  substance  of  its  message;  and  it  has 
remained,  through  all  these  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  profoundly  evangelical  in  tone. 

II 

The  second  contribution  lies  in  its  large  utiliza¬ 
tion  of  the  emotional  nature  in  the  formation  of 
Christian  character.  “  With  the  heart  man 
believe th  unto  righteousness,”  more  than  with  the 
head!  The  main  appeal,  therefore,  should  be  to  the 
feelings,  because  people,  taking  them  by  and  large, 
do  what  they  feel  like  doing.  They  may  not  reason 
it  all  out ;  they  may  not  make  it  a  matter  of  strict 
conscience,  but  they  do  certain  things  or  fail  to  do 
them  because  they  feel  that  way.  Not  a  closely 
reasoned  argument  on  the  appropriateness  and 
desirability  of  Christian  life,  but  the  direct  appeal 
to  the  affections  becomes  a  most  useful  instrument 
in  the  hands  of  men  who  would  lead  others  to  Christ. 

We  find  this  emphasis  on  the  emotional  life  in 

1 12 


9 


The  Methodist  Church 

the  characteristic  warmth  and  fervor  of  their 
preaching.  We  find  it  in  the  greater  prominence 
given  to  feeling  in  the  hymns  of  Charles  Wesley 
and  of  other  Methodist  hymn  writers.  We  find  it  in 
the  heartiness  of  their  congregational  singing,  which 
is  better  than  that  of  any  other  church  in  America 
—  the  people  who  sing  are  the  people  who  feel. 
We  find  it  in  the  hearty  responses  in  the  shape  of 
round  “  Amens  ”  which  sometimes  come  back  from 
the  pew  when  the  speaker  has  made  a  telling  point. 
We  find  it  in  the  outstretched  hand  and  the  cordial 
welcome  awaiting  the  stranger  who  strolls  into  any 
Methodist  church. 

We  find  it  also  in  their  emphasis  upon  the 
doctrine,  which  they  call  “  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit.”  How  is  a  man  to  know  that  he  has  found 
acceptance  with  God?  “  The  church  will  tell  him,” 
one  group  of  Christian  people  says,  —  “  Let  him 
accept  the  testimony  of  the  church  on  that  point 
as  given  from  the  lips  of  its  priest.”  “  The  Bible 
will  tell  him,”  another  group  replies,  —  “  Let  him 
stand  on  the  promises  as  made  in  God’s  Holy 
Word.”  “  Let  his  own  reason  tell  him,”  others 
answer;  —  “  if  he  has  met  the  conditions  of  salva¬ 
tion,  then  as  a  logical  result  he  has  found  accept¬ 
ance  with  God.” 

No  one  of  these  replies  would  satisfy  the  follow¬ 
ers  of  John  Wesley.  “  He  need  not  ask  the  church, 
or  the  Bible,  or  his  reason,”  the  Methodist  asserts. 
“  God  will  tell  him  in  his  own  heart.  He  will  feel 

113 


1 


The  Larger  Faith 


it.  The  Spirit  Himself  beareth  witness  with  our 
spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God.”  The  joy 
of  being  saved  and  of  knowing  it  and  of  being  able 
to  tell  it,  has  been  a  leading  note  in  the  religious  life 
of  this  branch  of  the  Church. 

It  was  a  beautiful  and  a  blessed  message  to  bring 
to  that  despondent  age  to  which  Wesley  preached. 
It  was  a  time  when  the  full  rigor  of  Calvinism  was 
in  the  saddle  and  it  rode  the  patient  people  to  their 
hurt.  It  was  believed  that  God  by  His  immutable 
decrees  had  from  all  eternity  determined  who  should 
be  saved  and  who  should  be  lost,  and  that  nothing 
that  man  could  do  would  change  those  decrees. 
The  elect  would  go  to  heaven,  and  the  non-elect 
would  go  to  hell  —  and  that  was  all  there  was 
about  it.  This  was  comforting  doctrine  to  those 
who  by  their  own  spiritual  conceit  perhaps,  had 
decided  that  they  belonged  to  “  the  elect.”  But 
as  the  great  majority  of  people  were  either  too 
ignorant  or  too  modest  to  believe  that  about  them¬ 
selves,  it  was  a  most  depressing  doctrine.  They 
had  an  old  hymn  which  they  used  to  sing: 

“  ’Tis  a  point  I  long  to  know, 

Oft  it  causes  anxious  thought, 

Do  I  love  the  Lord  or  no, 

Am  I  His  or  am  I  not?” 

It  all  depended  upon  those  “  eternal  decrees  ” 
which  had  been  established  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world. 

1 14 


The  Methodist  Church 


The  Methodists  never  sang  that  hymn.  They 
had  no  place  in  their  system  for  any  such  doctrine. 
They  went  everywhere  asserting  that,  “  The  elect 
are  whosoever  will  and  the  non-elect  are  whosoever 
won’t.”  They  insisted  that  every  man  who  votes 
for  himself  in  this  matter  of  salvation  is  elected. 
They  had  not  reasoned  it  all  out.  They  did  not 
undertake  to  combat  on  philosophical  grounds 
what  the  theologians  called  “  predestination,”  what 
the  man  on  the  street  calls  “  fate,”  what  the 
scientist  calls  “  determinism.”  But  out  of  the 
fulness  of  their  own  experience  of  God’s  loving 
mercy,  of  Christ’s  offered  redemption  and  of  the 
Spirit’s  witness  to  their  acceptance  in  their  own 
hearts,  they  went  about  preaching  the  good  news 
of  salvation. 

“  The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say,  Come.  Let  him 
that  is  athirst,  Come.  And  whosoever  will,  let 
him  take  the  water  of  life  freely.”  This  joyous 
message  touched,  and  moved,  and  renewed  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  —  the  Methodist  Church  grew 
by  leaps  and  bounds.  The  joy  of  their  songs,  their 
testimonies,  their  inner  satisfactions  became  a 
mighty  influence  in  extending  that  branch  of  the 
Church.  “  We  have  not  received  the  spirit  of 
bondage  again  to  fear,”  they  cried,  “  we  have 
received  the  spirit  of  adoption,  whereby  we  cry, 
Abba,  Father.” 

It  would  be  easy  to  carry  the  emotional  element 
in  religion  to  excess  where  it  might  result  in  a 

115 


The  Larger  Faith 

useless,  unseemly  form  of  self-indulgence.  If  we 
should  fix  our  attention  solely  upon  the  raptures 
of  religious  feeling  it  might  not  be  easy  to  distin¬ 
guish  sham  from  reality.  Jumping  up  and  down  or 
shouting  so  that  one  can  be  heard  in  the  next  block 
has  no  particular  value,  even  where  it  is  done  in  a 
religious  meeting,  unless  it  leads  to  something. 
The  final  test  of  anything,  feeling,  ritual  or  belief, 
is  conduct,  service,  life.  The  Methodist  leaders 
have  shown  wisdom  in  undertaking  speedily  to 
harness  these  floods  of  emotion  to  some  form  of 
practical  effort.  When  this  is  done  the  fervor  may 
have  great  significance.  The  heart  has  its  rights 
as  well  as  the  head.  And  in  that  section  of  human 
interest  where  the  two  great  commandments  are 
not  “  Thou  shalt  know  ”  or  “  Thou  shall  do,” 
but  “  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,”  and  “  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as 
thyself,”  this  emphasis  upon  the  emotional  life 
shows  good  statesmanship. 

Ill 

The  third  contribution  lies  in  their  sense  of  the 
value  of  organization.  I  regard  the  polity  of  the 
Methodist  Church  as  the  best  in  the  world,  not 
even  excepting  the  Roman  Catholic.  The  Catholic 
Church  makes  inadequate  provision  for  the  growing 
spirit  of  democracy.  The  Methodist  polity  com¬ 
bines  centralized  authority,  which  is  entrusted  to  its 
general  superintendents  or  bishops,  with  the  spirit 

116 


The  Methodist  Church 


of  democracy  in  making  large  provision  for  the 
influence  and  activity  of  the  laity.  It  is  therefore 
able  to  offer  a  most  effective  form  of  church 
government. 

Take  this  single  phase  of  it  —  the  organization 
of  their  ministers  into  conferences  under  what  is 
known  as  “  the  itinerant  system.”  Every  preacher 
ready  for  service  belongs  to  some  annual  conference 
which  covers  a  certain  geographical  area.  Once  a 
year  all  these  preachers  meet  together  in  conference 
with  the  Presiding  Bishop.  The  Bishop  in  con¬ 
sultation  with  the  District  Superintendents  or 
Presiding  Elders  (who  have  the  oversight  of  smaller 
groups  of  churches)  appoints  those  preachers  to  the 
places  where  they  shall  preach  for  the  next  year. 

He  has  absolute  power  to  do  this.  He  could,  if 
he  were  a  man  without  sense  or  conscience,  entirely 
override  the  wishes  of  any  preacher  or  of  any 
congregation.  He  may  receive  information  and 
advice  from  whatever  source  may  offer,  but  the 
final  decision  rests  solely  with  him.  In  early  days 
pastorates  were  limited  to  one  year;  then  the  time 
limit  was  extended  to  two  years,  then  to  three,  then 
to  five.  Now  it  has  been  removed  altogether,  so 
that  a  minister  may  be  reappointed  to  the  same 
church  indefinitely,  but  always  for  the  period  of 
one  year.  No  Methodist  minister  is  ever  invited  or 
appointed  to  the  pastorate  of  any  church  indefi¬ 
nitely,  as  would  be  the  case  in  a  Presbyterian  or  a 
Congregational  church. 

ii  7 


The  Larger  Faith 


The  system  is  not  without  its  defects  —  nothing 
human  is  perfect.  The  only  way  to  have  a  perfect 
organization  is  to  prevent  human  beings  from 
joining  it.  The  system  sometimes  works  disap¬ 
pointment  and  hardship.  A  church  may  not 
always  secure  the  pastor  it  wants,  or  the  pastor 
who  would  be  best  suited  for  it.  The  minister  may 
not  always  go  where  he  would  like  to  go  and  could 
go.  The  bishops  are  not  omniscient,  but  they  de¬ 
sire  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  churches,  and 
they  desire  the  highest  usefulness  of  the  ministers. 
They  listen  to  the  suggestions  of  the  laymen  who 
represent  the  various  congregations,  they  listen 
to  the  wishes  of  the  preachers  themselves,  and  then 
make  such  appointments  as  may  seem  wise  and 
right.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact  the  system  works 
well.  Every  Methodist  church  has  a  pastor  all  the 
time,  and  every  Methodist  pastor  has  a  church 
all  the  time.  There  are  no  discouraging,  disinte¬ 
grating  interims  when  the  church  is  without  a 
minister. 

The  changes  are  made  on  the  whole  with  little 
friction.  The  task  of  getting  rid  of  a  minister  who 
has  come  to  be  unacceptable  to  the  majority  of  his 
congregation  is  in  other  communions  oftentimes 
an  unhappy  experience  for  him  and  for  them. 
It  may  be  as  painful  as  having  all  of  one’s  teeth 
pulled.  But  under  the  Methodist  polity  when  the 
Annual  Conference  comes  the  change  can  be  made 
quietly,  without  splitting  the  church  into  factions, 

118 


The  Methodist  Church 


and  without  painful  embarrassment  to  the  minister. 
When  the  Sunday  after  conference  arrives,  every 
church  has  again  its  own  pastor  and  every  pastor  is 
preaching  in  his  own  church.  It  is  a  system  which 
works,  and  that  is  the  best  test  of  any  method. 

The  limiting  of  the  pastorate  to  short  periods  in 
the  early  history  of  the  Methodist  Church  enabled 
it  to  use  large  numbers  of  untrained  men,  and  men 
of  moderate  resources,  to  the  glory  of  God  and  for 
the  good  of  society.  There  is  no  reason  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  why  a  man’s  ministry  in  any  one 
church  should  be  of  a  certain  length,  five  years,  or 
ten  years,  or  twenty  years  —  it  all  depends  on 
the  length  of  the  man.  There  are  men  who  are 
“  preached  out  ”  at  the  end  of  a  year  or  two. 
Both  preacher  and  congregation  need  what  the 
farmers  would  call  a  “  rotation  of  crops.”  It  is  an 
exacting  demand  which  the  pastorate  of  ten  or 
twenty  years  makes  upon  a  man,  standing  as  he 
does  in  the  same  place  twice  a  week  to  speak  to 
many  of  the  same  people,  touching  the  truths  of 
religion.  The  wise  men  of  the  Methodist  Church 
knew  that  in  the  rapid  growth  of  their  work  and  in 
the  absence  of  a  sufficient  number  of  thoroughly 
trained  men,  they  would  be  able  to  use  ministers 
of  fewer  resources  with  splendid  effect  under  their 
itinerant  system. 

The  Methodists  have  shown  a  genius  for  organi¬ 
zation.  Not  content  with  building  up  strong 
churches,  they  have  been  fertile  in  the  promotion 

1 19 


The  Larger  Faith 


of  more  extended  efforts.  The  Chautauqua  Move¬ 
ment  is  non-sectarian,  but  Bishop  Vincent  of  the 
Methodist  Church  was  the  founder  of  it,  and  that 
church  has  furnished  its  largest  support.  The 
Freedmen’s  Aid  Society  for  the  education  and 
evangelization  of  the  released  slaves  has  rendered  a 
magnificent  service  to  the  nation.  The  Epworth 
League,  which  in  numbers  ranks  almost  with  the 
Christian  Endeavor  Society,  as  a  movement  for 
the  training  of  young  people  in  Christian  life  and 
service,  is  exclusively  a  Methodist  body.  The 
Order  of  Deaconesses  and  the  Methodist  Hospitals 
in  so  many  of  the  large  cities  have  given  evidence  of 
the  same  spirit  of  practical  efficiency  in  this  branch 
of  the  Church. 

By  their  splendid  enthusiasm  and  zeal,  by  their 
wise  and  wide  use  of  the  emotional  element  in 
human  nature,  and  by  their  practical,  efficient 
organization,  they  have  made  large  and  rapid 
growth  in  membership  until  the  Methodist  Church 
is  the  largest  Protestant  denomination  in  our 
country.  It  was  John  Wesley  who  said,  “  The 
world  is  my  parish.”  He  meant  it  intensively, 
as  well  as  extensively,  desiring  that  the  religion  of 
Christ  should  ally  itself  with  every  human  interest, 
as  well  as  spread  into  all  lands.  And  that  body  of 
Christians  who  revere  him  as  the  founder  of  their 
branch  of  the  Church  has  steadily  moved  ahead  in 
splendid  fulfillment  of  that  great  hope. 


120 


THE  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH 


I 


Chapter  VII 


The  Presbyterian  Church 

The  claim  has  been  made  that  “  The  Presbvte- 

j 

rian  Church  represents  more  money,  more  brains 
and  more  piety  than  any  other :  one  church  in 
America.”  It  may  have  no  more  money  per  capita 
than  the  Episcopal  Church,  but  it  is  a  large  church, 
while  the  Episcopal  Church  is  one  of  the  smaller 
churches.  It  may  have  no  more  brains  per  capita 
than  have  the  Congregationalists,  but  it  out¬ 
numbers  the  whole  Congregational  body  three  to 
one.  It  ranks  well  with  any  of  the  denominations 
in  its  sense  of  duty,  its  attachment  to  high  ideals, 
and  its  consciousness  of  the  spiritual  world.  When 
we  come  to  add  up  its  material,  its  intellectual  and 
its  spiritual  resources,  it  makes  a  splendid  showing. 

The  word  Presbyterian  comes  from  the  Greek 
word  presbuteros ,  which  means  “  an  elder.”  It  is 
a  church  ruled  by  elders.  The  ordained  ministers 
are  “  teaching  elders,”  and  in  each  congregation 
there  are  laymen  elected  as  “  ruling  elders.”  The 
pastor  with  the  elders  and  the  deacons  compose 
the  Session,  which  is  the  ruling  body  of  the  local 
church.  A  number  of  churches  conveniently 
located  are  organized  into  a  Presbytery,  which  is 
made  up  of  all  the  teaching  elders  resident  within 

123 


The  Larger  Faith 


its  borders  and  a  ruling  elder  from  each  congrega¬ 
tion.  These  Presbyteries  are  organized  into 
Synods,  which  oftentimes  comprise  entire  states. 
Above  these  Synods  stands  the  General  Assembly, 
made  up  of  ministers  and  ruling  elders  in  equal 
proportions,  as  the  highest  governing  body  of  the 
church.  The  Presbyterian  Church  is  a  close-knit, 
highly  organized  body  standing  midway  between 
the  monarchical  form  of  church  government  by 
bishops,  and  the  pure  democracy  of  the  congrega¬ 
tional  polity. 

I 

The  four  distinctive  contributions  made  by  this 
branch  of  the  Church  to  our  total  Christianity  seem 
to  be  these:  —  First,  its  spirit  of  conservatism! 
It  is  a  cautious,  deliberate  church.  It  does  not 
readily  lose  its  head.  It  is  never  easy  to  stampede 
a  company  of  Presbyterians.  They  are  ready  in 
their  own  good  time  to  “  prove  all  things,”  but 
they  are  strongly  bent  on  “  holding  fast  that  which 
is  good.” 

They  are  not  likely  to  go  off  half-cocked  in  their 
hasty  acceptance  of  some  new-fangled  notion  which 
turned  up  only  last  week.  It  was  a  fine  old  Presby¬ 
terian  pastor  who  once  said  of  a  certain  religious 
pronouncement,  “That  which  is  new  in  it  is  not 
true,  and  that  which  is  true  is  not  new.”  The 
Presbyterian  Church  does  not  propose  to  be 
frightened  out  of  its  beliefs  because  some  free 

124 


The  Presbyterian  Church 

lance  has  had  nightmare.  It  has  the  conservative 
habit  of  mind. 

Its  three  main  standards  of  doctrine  are  the 
Shorter  Catechism  which  my  own  Presbyterian 
mother  taught  me  in  my  childhood,  the  Larger 
Catechism  and  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith.  This  remarkable  Confession  was  wrought 
out  by  an  assembly  convened  in  1643  in  England’s 
most  famous  place  of  worship,  Westminster  Abbey. 
The  assembly  was  made  up  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-one  Doctors  of  Divinity,  eleven  Lords, 
twenty  Commoners  and  seven  commissioners  from 
Scotland.  It  continued  in  session  for  five  and  a  half 
years,  holding  hundreds  of  meetings.  They  met 
every  day  in  the  week  except  Saturday,  and  sat 
from  nine  o’clock  until  two.  Each  session  was 
opened  and  closed  with  prayer  and  one  day  in  each 
month  was  set  apart  for  prayer,  when  they  came 
together  and  continued  for  four  hours  in  continuous 
supplication  for  the  blessing  of  God  upon  their 
deliberations.  The  Westminster  Confession  thus 
issued  from  an  atmosphere  of  earnest  devotion. 

It  was  in  the  time  of  Bacon  and  Shakespeare. 
The  King  James  version  of  the  Bible  had  just  been 
published.  It  was  a  period  when  the  English 
language  was  at  its  best.  It  was  also  a  time  when 
Christian  men  were  not  satisfied  with  easy-going 
standards  of  conduct  or  superficial  statements  of 
belief.  The  age  demanded  a  creed  which  would  be 
an  impregnable  statement  of  religious  truth,  to 

125 


The  Larger  Faith 


serve  as  a  bulwark  against  error,  as  a  basis  of 
ecclesiastical  fellowship  and  as  an  effective  instru¬ 
ment  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  people  of 
God.  The  Westminster  Confession  came  forth  in 
response  to  that  demand. 

It  is  no  milk-and-water  affair  —  it  is  a  tremen¬ 
dous  document.  It  undertakes  to  be  the  most 
logical,  fundamental  and  explicit  setting  forth  of 
man’s  relations  to  his  Maker  anywhere  contained 
in  the  creeds  of  Christendom.  And  when  one  reads 
it  with  an  open  mind  he  realizes  at  once  that  it  is 
designed  to  build  up  a  massive  and  masculine  type 
of  piety  in  the  lives  of  those  who  give  it  their 
adherence. 

It  is  the  great  digest  of  Calvinism,  the  system 
of  that  man  of  iron,  who  stood  forth  as  a  theologian 
and  a  reformer  in  Geneva.  It  plants  itself  firmly 
on  the  five  points  of  Calvinism.  Human  depravity 

—  man  is  hopelessly  corrupt  and  has  no  power  in 
himself  for  moral  recovery!  Unconditional  election 

—  God  from  all  eternity  has,  by  His  immutable 
decrees,  determined  that  certain  men  should  be 
saved!  A  limited  atonement  —  Christ  died  for  the 
elect;  He  did  not  die  for  the  non-elect,  for  that 
would  have  been  shedding  His  blood  in  vain! 
Irresistible  grace  —  in  order  to  make  God’s  decrees 
of  election  effective  there  must  proceed  from  Him 
a  moral  influence  which  cannot  be  successfully 
opposed!  The  final  perseverance  of  the  saints  — 
“  once  in  grace,  always  in  grace,”  for  if  a  man  once 

126 


The  Presbyterian  Church 


« 

renewed  and  numbered  among  the  elect  should  fall 
away  into  sin  it  would  negative  one  of  those 
eternal  decrees.  Upon  this  form  of  faith,  heading 
up  in  the  “  Divine  Sovereignty  ”  and  dependent 
for  its  efficacy  not  upon  the  moral  preference  of  the 
individual,  but  upon  the  assertion  of  an  Infinite 
Will,  the  Presbyterian  churches  took  their  stand. 

It  would  be  easy  to  poke  fun  at  some  of  the  state¬ 
ments  of  belief  included  in  such  thoroughgoing 
Calvinism  —  popular  novelists,  sensational  preach¬ 
ers  and  the  secular  press  have  all  taken  their  turn 
at  this  interesting  diversion.  But  “  by  their 
fruits  ”  we  judge  statements  of  belief.  These  great 
convictions  have  empowered  men  to  live  nobly  and 
to  die  heroically  beyond  those  of  any  other  single 
religious  creed  which  can  be  named.  When  spiritual 
tyranny  showed  its  head  in  England  and  in  Scot¬ 
land,  in  Germany,  in  France  and  in  Switzerland, 
men  and  women  of  heroic  build,  fed  upon  the  great 
convictions  of  Calvin,  stood  up  to  resist  and  they 
present  a  magnificent  array  of  martyrs,  who  sealed 
their  testimony  in  their  own  blood. 

It  was  John  Morley,  a  careful,  critical  historian, 
an  outspoken  agnostic  in  his  own  religious  attitude, 
who  said:  “  Calvinism  has  inspired  incomparable 
energy,  concentration,  resolution.  It  has  exalted 
its  votaries  to  a  pitch  of  heroic  moral  strength  that 
has  never  been  surpassed.  They  have  exhibited  an 
active  courage,  a  resolute  endurance,  a  cheerful 
self-restraint,  and  an  exulting  self-sacrifice  which 

127 


The  Larger  Faith 


men  count  among  the  highest  glories  of  the  human 
conscience.”  It  is  impossible  for  any  thoughtful 
man  to  dismiss  such  a  system  with  a  sneer. 

It  was  John  Fiske,  the  philosophical  historian, 
standing  himself  on  the  border  between  Uni- 
tarianism  and  agnosticism,  who  paid  this  tribute 
to  the  sturdy  influence  of  Calvinism  upon  the  cause 
of  human  freedom: 

“  It  would  be  hard  to  overrate  the  debt  which 
mankind  owes  to  Calvin.  The  spiritual  father  of 
Coligny,  of  William  the  Silent,  and  of  Cromwell 
must  occupy  a  foremost  rank  among  the  champions 
of  modern  democracy.  In  the  presence  of  the  awful 
responsibility  of  life,  all  distinctions  of  rank  and 
fortune  vanished ;  prince  and  pauper  were  alike  the 
helpless  creatures  of  Jehovah  and  suppliants  for 
his  grace.  Calvin  did  not  originate  these  doctrines, 
but  in  emphasizing  this  aspect  of  Christianity,  in 
engraving  it  upon  men’s  minds  with  that  keen-edged 
logic  which  he  used  with  such  unrivalled  skill,  he 
made  them  feel,  as  it  had  perhaps  never  been  felt 
before,  the  dignity  and  importance  of  the  individual 
human  soul.  It  was  a  religion  fit  to  inspire  men 
who  were  to  be  called  upon  to  fight  for  freedom, 
whether  in  the  marshes  of  the  Netherlands,  or 
on  the  moors  of  Scotland.” 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  taken  that  theo¬ 
logical  system  known  as  Calvinism  and  has  held 
on  to  it  with  a  tenacity  which  amazed  the  Nine¬ 
teenth  Century,  and  will  amaze  this  light-hearted 

128 


The  Presbyterian  Church 


Twentieth  Century,  accustomed  as  it  is  to  say  that 
it  does  not  care  what  a  man  believes,  if  only  he  is 
sincere.  The  Presbyterian  Church  cares.  It  is 
a  doctrinal  church,  doctrinal  in  its  preaching,  doc¬ 
trinal  in  the  tone  of  its  periodicals,  doctrinal  in 
requiring  theological  soundness  in  its  office  bearers. 
From  candidates  for  admission  to  the  membership 
of  the  church  it  requires  nothing  but  repentance  for 
sin,  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  the  consecra¬ 
tion  of  the  life  to  God  —  it  is  exceedingly  simple 
and  broad  as  to  its  doctrinal  requirement.  But 
from  its  ministers  and  ruling  elders  it  has  required, 
until  recently,  assent  to  the  entire  Westminster 
Confession,  and  even  now  its  demands  are  more 
exacting  than  those  of  any  other  Protestant  denomi¬ 
nation. 

We  would  naturally  expect  that  the  most  famous 
heresy  trials  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  would 
occur  in  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Robertson 
Smith  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  one  of  the 
most  gifted  students  of  the  Old  Testament  in 
modern  times,  was  deposed  from  his  chair  for 
heresy.  David  Swing  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  most 
thoughtful  and  popular  preachers  in  that  busy  city, 
was  compelled  to  leave  the  Presbyterian  Church 
because  of  heresy.  Professor  Charles  A.  Briggs  of 
Union  Seminary  was  excluded  from  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Church  for  teachings  which  seemed  to  con¬ 
flict  with  the  Westminster  Confession.  Professor 
Henry  Preserved  Smith  of  Lane  Seminary,  Cincin- 

129 


The  Larger  Faith 


nati,  was  similarly  deposed,  and  the  agitation 
regarding  Professor  (now  President)  A.  C.  Mc- 
Giffert,  of  Union  Seminary,  made  it  seem  appro¬ 
priate  to  him  voluntarily  to  withdraw  fiom  the 
Presbyterian  denomination. 

Where  conservatism  does  not  spring  from  nar¬ 
row-minded  bigotry  or  from  sheer  obstinacy,  we 
honor  it.  Personally  I  could  no  more  believe 
some  of  the  statements  in  the  Westminster  Confes¬ 
sion  than  I  could  believe  that  two  and  two  might 
make  five.  But  here  is  a  large,  thoughtful,  con¬ 
scientious  body  of  Christian  men  and  women,  who 
do  believe  that  these  statements  are  true  and  be: 
cause  of  their  loyalty  to  conviction  they  are  pre¬ 
pared  to  accept  whatever  difficulties  may  attach  to 
insistence  upon  these  standards. 

In  the  everlasting  struggle  for  human  progress 
we  need  the  conservatives  no  less  than  the  liberals 
and  the  radicals.  We  need  those  men  who,  by  their 
very  habit  of  mind,  will  be  sure  not  to  abandon 
anything  that  has  value.  We  need  those  who, 
revering  the  great  accomplishments  of  the  past,  are 
ready  to  bring  out  of  their  treasures  things  new  and 
old  —  the  old  as  well  as  the  new.  And  in  these  days 
when  great  numbers  of  people  do  not  know  what 
they  believe  or  why  they  believe  it,  it  is  of  great 
significance  that  we  have  this  sturdy,  faithful, 
conscientious  body  of  Christians  bent  on  holding 
fast  all  that  has  shown  itself  good. 


130 


The  Presbyterian  Church 


II 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  kept  alive  a  pro¬ 
found  sense  of  the  enormity  and  the  ill-desert  of 
sin.  This^  church  takes  the  moral  life  of  the  race 
seriously.  It  has  never  fallen  into  the  way  of 
thinking  of  evil  as  only  “  good  in  the  making  ”  or 
of  saying  that  wickedness  is  only  “  one  of  the  grow¬ 
ing  pains  of  virtue.”  It  would  have  no  sympathy 
with  that  popular  preacher  of  London  who  claimed 
that  “  the  drunkard  reeling  through  the  streets  in 
brutal  fashion  is  after  all  only  engaged  in  a  mistaken 
quest  for  God.”  It  does  not  believe  that  the  sin¬ 
ner  will  naturally  and  easily  grow  up  out  of  his  sin 
into  the  goodness  of  a  saint  by  a  process  of  evolu¬ 
tion.  It  believes  as  the  apostle  did  that  “  men 
have  given  themselves  up  to  uncleanness  through 
the  lusts  of  their  hearts;  that  they  have  become 
vain  in  their  imaginations  and  their  minds  have 
become  darkened;  that  they  have  changed  the 
truth  of  God  into  a  lie  and  that  the  wrath  of  God  is 
revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness  and 
unrighteousness.”  The  Presbyterian  Church  has 
the  sense  of  sin. 

Have  any  more  terrible  batteries  ever  been 
turned  upon  the  wrong-doing  of  the  world  than 
those  of  Calvinism!  When  certain  sections  of  the 
Church  were  granting  indulgences  on  easy  terms, 
allowing  men  to  clear  up  their  moral  accounts  with 
the  Almighty  by  paying  thirty  cents  on  the  dollar; 

131 


The  Larger  Faith 


when  other  leaders  were  insisting  that  the  waters 
of  baptism  would  instantly  wash  away  whatever 
stain  or  corruption  might  cling  to  the  moral  nature; 
when  others  were  speaking  gently  of  the  evil  in  the 
world  as  a  kind  of  childish  aberration,  the  Presby¬ 
terian  churches  were  steadily  insisting  that  sin  is 
an  act  of  rebellion  against  rightful  authority;  that 
it  is  an  insult  and  an  outrage  to  the  love  of  a  holy 
Father;  that  it  is  a  heinous  and  fatal  corruption  of 
the  nature,  to  be  cured  only  by  supernatural  grace 
and  divine  redemption. 

The  chief  end  of  man,  as  they  view  it,  is  not  to 
have  a  good  time  or  to  cultivate  one’s  own  powers 
or  to  “  evolute  ”  into  his  own  completer  self  — 
“  The  chief  end  of  man  is  to  glorify  God  and  enjoy 
Him  forever.”  At  the  very  beginning  of  that  finer 
quality  of  life  which  is  not  self-centered,  but  finds 
its  center  in  the  Divine  will,  there  must  come  an 
open  recognition  of  one’s  sinfulness.  The  prodigal 
who  comes  back  from  the  far  country  must  say 
first  of  all,  “  I  have  sinned  and  am  no  more  worthy 
to  be  called  thy  son.” 

Is  there  not  cause!  We  often  put  rubber  tires 
on  the  words  we  apply  to  evil  in  these  comfortable 
days,  lest  some  evil  doer  should  receive  shock  or 
jolt.  Lying  is  only  “  prevarication  ”!  Stealing  is 
“  an  unfortunate  kleptomania  ”!  Lust  is  only 
“  the  unschooled  throbbings  of  nature  ”  according 
to  many  a  modern  novel.  Graft  is  not  civic  treach¬ 
ery  and  crime,  as  it  once  was  —  it  is  “  one  of  the 

132 


The  Presbyterian  Church 


exigencies  of  business  life  under  the  intricate  condi¬ 
tions  of  modern  industry.” 

If  we  should  keep  on  mixing  our  colors,  by  and 
by  nothing  would  be  wrong!  We  should  have 
neither  black  nor  white  but  only  a  few  indistinct 
shades  of  gray.  And  when  nothing  is  wrong,  when 
the  power  of  hating  evil  is  lost,  then  the  race  will 
become  morally  bankrupt.  All  honor  to  that 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church  which  has  main¬ 
tained  its  keen  sense  of  the  ill-desert,  the  enormity 
and  the  infamy  of  sin  against  God! 

The  wholesome  effect  of  this  attitude  has  been 
witnessed  on  many  fields.  You  may  recall  the 
austere  morality  of  Cromwell’s  Army,  unparalleled 
in  the  military  annals  of  the  world.  Army  life  is 
often  a  school  of  vice;  it  becomes  the  crucial  test 
of  morals  and  religion.  But  the  army  of  Ironsides 
became  the  wonder  of  the  world  for  its  moral 
purity  no  less  than  for  its  intrepid  valor.  They 
marched  against  the  most  renowned  battalions  of 
Europe,  chanting  their  psalms  and  relying  upon 
the  Unseen  God  —  and  somehow  they  seemed 
never  to  fail  in  destroying  whatever  opposed  them. 
It  is  the  testimony  of  Macaulay,  of  Goldwin  Smith, 
of  John  Morley  and  of  other  historians,  who  touch 
upon  that  period  of  history,  that  no  army  has  ever 
so  combined  heroism  and  purity. 

“  In  that  camp  no  oath  was  heard,  no  drunken¬ 
ness  witnessed,  no  gambling  seen.  The  property 
of  man  and  the  honor  of  woman  were  alike  safe. 

133 


The  Larger  Faith 


No  servant  girl  was  compelled  to  mourn  by  the 
rough  gallantry  of  these  red-coats.  Not  an  ounce 
of  plate  was  stolen  from  the  shops  of  the  gold¬ 
smiths.”  All  this  from  Macaulay’s  “  History  of 
England  ”!  Taine  adds,  “  They  raised  the  national 
morality  even  as  they  had  saved  the  national 
liberty!  ”  This  was  an  army  of  Calvinists,  taking 
Scripture  texts  for  their  watch-words  and  counter¬ 
signs,  singing  the  hymns  of  the  faith  as  their  battle- 
cries!  They  cherished  a  profound  sense  of  the 
malignity  and  the  hatefulness  of  sin,  and  thus  they 
trampled  temptation  under  their  feet  even  as  they 
put  their  enemies  to  flight. 

Ill 

The  third  contribution  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  has  been  its  devotion  to  the  Bible.  No 
other  denomination  has  surpassed  it  in  attributing, 
as  the  result  of  painstaking  scholarship,  such 
unique  and  final  authority  to  the  Bible.  The  head 
and  front  of  Dr.  Briggs’  offending  was  not  so  much 
that  he  taught  that  the  Pentateuch  was  composed 
of  many  and  sometimes  conflicting  documents, 
or  that  the  book  of  Isaiah  was  the  work  of  more  than 
one  man!  It  was  that  he  claimed  in  his  famous 
address  that  there  were  three  sources  of  authoiity 
in  religion  —  the  Bible,  which  was  the  classic 
utterance  of  the  mind  of  the  Lord  in  literature; 
the  Church,  as  the  utterance  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
to  be  found  in  the  great  consensus  of  human 

134 


The  Presbyterian  Church 

•S 


experience  and  testimony  throughout  the  ages  of 
Christian  history;  and  Reason,  the  noblest  faculty 
in  man  acting  at  its  best  in  pronouncing  upon  the 
validity  of  the  claims  of  religion.  The  Bible,  the 
Church  and  Reason  were  concurrent  sources  of 
authority  according  to  Dr.  Briggs;  and  this  exalta¬ 
tion  of  two  other  sources  of  instruction  to  the  place 
where  they  would  share  in  the  unique  honor 
accorded  the  Bible  became  to  a  large  number  of 
Presbyterians  insupportable. 

This  exaltation  of  the  Bible  by  the  Presbyterians 
has  not  been  merely  a  traditional  and  sentimental 
attitude.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  been  dis¬ 
tinguished  from  the  first  for  painstaking  and  pro¬ 
found  scholarship.  The  Westminster  Confession 
is  not  made  up  of  a  lot  of  pious,  well-meaning,  but 
ill-considered  platitudes  —  it  is  painfully  and 
rigidly  learned.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has 
had  great  doctors  of  the  faith  —  the  Hodges  and 
the  Alexanders  of  Princeton,  Shedd  and  Schaff, 
James  McCosh  and  Francis  L.  Patton,  Roswell  D. 
Hitchcock  and  Marvin  R.  Vincent,  Francis  Brown 
and  Benjamin  B.  Warfield.  They  were  men  who 
had  studied  the  subject;  they  were  competent  to 
speak.  They  knew  exactly  what  they  believed  and 
wdiy  they  believed  it,  and  were  not  to  be  badgered 
out  of  it  by  the  flourishes  of  a  few  popular  novelists 
or  the  flings  of  some  newspaper  reporters,  who, 
theologically  speaking,  did  not  know  their  right 
hands  from  their  left.  Out  of  this  learning  came 

135 


The  Larger  Faith 


those  scholars  who  with  one  accord  exalted  the 
Bible  for  its  inspiration  and  final  authority. 

We  may  not  hold  with  these  men  in  all  their  views 
but  that  attitude  gave  an  impetus  to  Bible  study. 
It  lay  at  the  root  of  the  strong  insistence  of  the 
Presbyterians  upon  high  standards  of  ministerial 
education.  The  Presbyterian  Church  has  shown 
itself  unwilling  to  ordain  men  without  college  and 
seminary  training.  This  exaltation  of  the  Bible  has 
promoted  a  thorough  ands  ystematic  study  of  the 
Scriptures  in  their  Sunday  schools  and  in  the  homes 
of  their  people.  It  has  encouraged  all  the  members 
of  the  church  to  strive  to  understand  and  rightly 
divide  these  words  of  truth  which  are  the  final 
source  of  authority  in  all  matters  of  faith  and 
practice.  In  these  days,  when  critical  study  and 
the  purely  literary  treatment  of  the  Bible  have  been 
unsettling  the  faith  of  many  and  have  been  lower¬ 
ing  the  Bible  in  the  estimation  of  others,  this 
supreme  honor  placed  upon  the  Word  of  God  by 
this  branch  of  the  Church  has  been  of  inestimable 
worth. 


IV 

* 

The  Presbyterian  Church  has  stood  strongly  for 
the  value  of  an  intelligent  Christian  nurture. 
One  might  indicate  a  certain  difference  here  by  the 
words  “  crisis  ”  and  “  process.”  The  sacramental 
idea  of  religion  makes  much  of  the  crisis  —  the 
unbaptized  individual  is  unregenerate,  but  holy 

136 


The  Presbyterian  Church 


water  in  the  hands  of  an  officiating  priest  applied 
to  the  child  or  to  the  believing  adult  will  enable 
him  to  pass  from  death  unto  life.  The  emotional 
type  of  religion  makes  much  of  the  crisis  —  if 
there  can  only  come  an  overturning,  overwhelming 
crisis  in  the  feelings  of  the  individual,  then  in  that 
hour  he  may  enter  upon  a  regenerate  life. 

According  to  the  other  view,  religion  is  to  be 
phrased  rather  in  terms  of  domestic  life,  the  Father 
bringing  up  His  children  gradually  into  conscious, 
obedient,  joyous  fellowship  with  Himself.  It  may 
be  phrased  likewise  in  terms  of  education,  the 
Master  of  our  spirits  leading  His  disciples,  pupils, 
learners,  into  self-realization  by  self-expression  in 
worship,  in  service  and  in  fellowship  with  Him. 
Here  salvation  is  a  moral  process,  conducted  by  the 
Spirit  of  God  in  the  hearts  of  teachable  men. 

The  Presbyterian  Church  makes  much  of  this. 
By  thorough  religious  instruction  in  the  homes  of 
its  people,  it  aims  to  hold  its  children  within  the 
power  of  Christian  nurture.  It  maintains  that  the 
ideal  is  for  the  child  never  to  know  the  hour  when 
he  does  not  live  in  the  love  and  the  service  of  God. 
Family  discipline,  family  prayer,  the  instruction  of 
children  in  the  catechism  and  the  maintenance  of 
the  offices  of  Christian  nurture  in  the  home  have 
been  of  unspeakable  advantage  to  this  branch  of 
the  Church.  Its  course  of  action  has  been  a  lesson 
and  an  example  to  Christian  people  of  all  com¬ 
munions.  It  has  often  held  aloof  from  the  sudden, 

137 


The  Larger  Faith 


startling  modes  of  awakening  religious  interest.  It 
places  its  emphasis  upon  the  quieter  and  in  the 
long  run  the  more  reliable  modes  of  Christian 
nurture  for  the  extension  of  the  Kingdom. 

This  church  has  rendered  a  noble  service  in  the 
history  of  our  country.  It  has  had  great  preachers 
of  the  gospel  of  Christ  —  John  Hall  and  Theodore 
Cuyler,  Howard  Crosby  and  Charles  H.  Park- 
hurst,  Henry  van  Dyke  and  William  P.  Merrill, 
John  Kelman  and  Henry  Sloan  Coffin,  in  a  single 
city!  These  honored  and  useful  pastors  by  their 
strong  preaching  and  their  winsome  personality 
have  made  a  lasting  impress  upon  the  life  of  that 
restless,  populous  city  of  New  York. 

This  church  has  written  a  noble  record  in  the 
work  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions  —  Jessup, 
Thompson  and  Bliss  in  Syria,  John  G.  Paton  in 
the  New  Hebrides  and  Sheldon  Jackson  in  Ala$ka, 
and  many  other  men  highly  honored  in  the  field  of 
Christian  effort!  It  has  reared  up  a  splendid  body 
of  intelligent,  conscientious  and  influential  laymen. 
When  we  call  the  roll  of  Presbyterian  presidents, 
senators  and  jurists,  we  find  it  a  long  and  worthy 
roll  of  honor.  By  its  conservative  temper,  by  its 
sense  of  the  awfulness  of  wrong-doing,  by  its  devo¬ 
tion  to  the  Bible,  and  by  its  emphasis  on  the  Chris¬ 
tian  nurture  of  the  child,  it  has  made  a  distinct  and 
valuable  contribution  to  our  total  Christianity. 


138 


THE  ROMAN  CATHOLIC  CHURCH 


Chapter  VIII 


'  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 

“  There  never  was  on  this  earth  a  work  of  human 
policy  so  well  deserving  of  careful  study  as  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church.  Its  history  joins  together 
the  two  great  ages  of  human  civilization.  No  other 
institution  is  left  standing  which  carries  the  mind 
back  to  the  days  when  the  smoke  of  sacrifice  arose 
from  the  Pantheon  at  Rome  and  lions  leaped  upon 
their  victims  in  the  Coliseum.  The  proudest  royal 
houses  of  Europe  are  but  of  yesterday  compared 
with  the  long  line  of  Supreme  Pontiffs  in  the 
Vatican.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  was  great 
and  respected  before  the  Saxon  had  set  foot  in 
Britain,  before  the  Frank  had  crossed  the  Rhine, 
when  Greek  eloquence  still  flourished  in  Antioch, 
when  idols  were  still  worshipped  in  the  Temple  of 
Mecca.  And  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  may  still 
exist  in  undiminished  vigor  when  some  traveler 
from  New  Zealand  shall  take  his  stand  on  a  broken 
arch  of  London  Bridge  to  sketch  the  ruins  of  St. 
Paul.” 

These  are  the  words  of  Thomas  Babington 
Macaulay,  one  of  the  most  widely  read  historians 
of  the  English-speaking  race.  He  wrote  them  in 
his  famous  essay  on  Von  Ranke’s  Lives  of  the  Popes. 

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The  Larger  Faith 

Make  full  allowance  for  the  showy  rhetoric  which 
rendered  him  more  admirable  as  a  brilliant  essayist 
than  as  a  careful,  accurate  historian,  we  still  have 
here  a  judgment  which  causes  every  serious  man 
who  reads  it  to  reflect!  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  as  a  world-wide,  age-long,  highly  organized 
institution  must  be  reckoned  with  in  every  land  on 
the  globe.  However  we  may  agree  or  disagree  with 
some  of  its  doctrines,  here  is  a  mighty  force  in 
human  affairs,  not  only  ancient  and  august,  but 
at  this  very  hour  tremendously  vital  and  significant! 

I  have  not  space  here  to  discuss  its  long  and 
varied  history.  I  have  not  time  to  consider  its 
many  doctrines,  of  which  it  has  more  and  to  us  as 
Protestants,  more  incredible  ones,  than  any  other 
branch  of  the  Christian  Church.  I  shall  not  under¬ 
take  to  indicate  all  of  the  points  at  which  I  per¬ 
sonally  would  dissent  from  its  positions  touching 
the  work  of  public  education,  the  place  of  civil 
authority  or  the  intellectual  attitude  to  be  main¬ 
tained  toward  Modernism  in  philosophy  and 
religion.  It  would  take  a  long  time  to  do  that  with 
anything  like  thoroughness  and  the  purpose  of  this 
little  book  is  not  controversial.  I  would  not  widen 
but  lessen  the  gulf  which  hinders  the  various 
branches  of  Christ’s  Church  from  sympathetic 
cooperation  touching  the  great  main  interests 
of  character  and  service.  I  feel  much  as  did  a 
celebrated  Englishman  when  he  returned  from 
several  years  of  service  in  India  where  he  had  been 

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The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


aiding  in  the  introduction  of  a  better  educational 
system — “  I  have  lived  too  long,”  he  said,  “in 
a  land  where  people  worship  cows  to  make  much 
difference  in  my  treatment  of  those  who  worship 
Christ  in  different  ways.”  I  am  writing  these 
pages  in  the  hope  that  I  may  help  some  of  my 
fellow  Christians  to  understand  each  other  better. 

The  four  main  contributions  which  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  has  made  to  the  larger  faith  in 
my  judgment  are  these: 

I 

First,  the  inculcation  of  the  habit  of  worship! 
All  church  people  worship  God,  but  Catholics,  we 
may  say  not  irreverently,  have  “  the  habit  ” 
beyond  any  other  body  of  Christians  to  be  named. 
The  little  children  as  soon  as  they  are  able  to  toddle 
up  the  aisle  of  the  church,  to  cross  themselves 
with  holy  water  and  to  bow  before  the  altar,  are 
steeped  in  the  habit  of  worship.  When  they 
become  men  and  women  they  feel  moved  to  go  to 
church,  not  to  listen  to  some  eloquent  sermon  — 
they  may  not  know  who  is  to  preach,  or  that  any 
one  is  to  preach  —  not  to  enjoy  an  elaborate 
program  of  attractive  music,  but  to  kneel  before 
the  Lord  their  Maker  and  offer  to  Him  the  adora¬ 
tion  and  allegiance  of  their  hearts. 

Every  Catholic  church  stands  open  all  day  and 
every  day  in  the  week,  inviting  the  passer-by  to 
come  in  and  worship.  When  one  enters  there  may 

M3 


The  Larger  Faith 


be  no  service  of  any  kind  in  progress,  but  there  are 
the  symbols  of  the  Christian  faith,  there  is  an 
atmosphere  of  reverence  and  devotion  and  there 
will  commonly  be  found  a  group  of  his  fellow  beings 
stopping  to  unburden  and  refresh  their  hearts  in 
personal  worship. 

One  summer  when  I  was  in  Italy  I  visited  the 
great  cathedral  at  Milan  just  at  sunrise.  As  I 
passed  into  that  magnificent  temple  visited  every 
year  by  tens  of  thousands  of  people  coming  from 
the  ends  of  the  earth  to  stand  silent  and  awestruck 
before  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  its  architecture, 
I  saw  just  outside  the  door  a  dozen  huge  market 
baskets.  They  were  filled  with  produce,  lettuce, 
spinach,  radishes,'  onions  —  the  market  women 
who  owned  the  baskets  were  on  their  way  to  market 
to  sell  the  products  of  their  gardens.  And  then,  as 
I  reverently  moved  up  near  the  altar,  I  saw  these 
old  peasant  women  to  whom  the  baskets  belonged. 
Their  faces  were  bronzed,  scarred  and  wrinkled 
by  hard  work  and  exposure.  They  had  stopped  for 
a  few  moments  on  their  way  to  work  to  worship. 
And  these  rough,  shabbily  dressed  market  women 
felt  thoroughly  at  home  in  that  magnificent  cathe¬ 
dral.  No  one  save  an  American  Protestant  would 
have  thought  of  giving  them  a  curious  glance. 
And  when  they  arose  from  their  knees  and  passed 
out,  they*  had  gained  a  feeling  of  spiritual  refresh¬ 
ment,  a  new  consciousness  of  the  greatness  of 
human  life  even  under  the  rudest  conditions,  an 

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The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


added  sense  of  their  kinship  with  the  Eternal  in 
whose  honor  that  costly  temple  of  worship  had  been 
reared.  And  that  habit  of  worship  is  wonderfully 
and  beautifully  established  in  the  sentiments  and 
the  practice  of  a  great  mass  of  people,  more  than 
two  hundred  millions  of  them,  who  confess  alle¬ 
giance  to  the  Roman  Church. 

It  is  a  vast  service  to  render.  It  is  especially 
significant  in  an  age  which  is  deficient  in  its  attitude 
of  reverence,  in  its  sense  of  the  unseen  and  in  its 
readiness  to  fall  down  silent  and  expectant  before 
the  Most  High.  You  may  go  through  the  streets 
of  any  city  in  Christendom  and  you  will  see  early 
on  Sunday  morning  crowds  of  people  on  their  way 
to  worship.  In  most  cases  no  special  announce¬ 
ment  of  the  service  has  been  made  in  any  public 
way  through  the  newspapers  or  otherwise,  but  the 
people  are  on  their  way  to  the  house  of  God  because 
of  this  ingrained  habit  of  worship.  Masses  are  held 
at  six  o’clock,  seven  o’clock,  eight  o’clock,  nine 
o’clock,  ten  o’clock  and  congregations  of  people 
attend  them.  You  will  find  them  there  in  their 
pews,  on  their  knees,  with  their  lips  moving  in 
prayer.  They  are  listening  for  a  voice  from  heaven 
to  speak  peace  to  their  souls.  I  question  seriously 
whether  this  settled  habit  of  worship  can  be 
matched  in  any  other  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church. 


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The  Larger  Faith 


II 

The  second  contribution  this  church  has  made 
may  be  found  in  the  habit  of  obedience  to  authority. 
“Poverty,  chastity  and  obedience”  —  these  are 
the  three  radical  vows  taken  by  an  army  of  men 
and  women  in  the  Catholic  faith.  They  renounce 
all  claim  to  private  property,  receiving  only  a  bare 
support.  They  “  belong  to  the  Church  ”  in  -a  very 
real  sense,  to  be  used  by  the  Church  as  may  seem 
to  it  wise  and  good.  For  the  sake  of  the  service 
which  they  have  undertaken,  they  refuse  the  sweet 
joys  of  family  life.  It  is  desired  by  their  church 
that  they  should  be  free  from  all  domestic  responsi¬ 
bilities  so  that  they  can  go  or  come  as  their  superiors 
may  direct.  And  obedience,  prompt,  unquestion¬ 
ing,  unmeasured,  to  the  head  of  the  Order  to  whose 
service  they  have  dedicated  their  lives,  has  become 
for  them  the  rule  of  life.  This  obedience  on  the 
part  of  great  numbers  of  monks,  nuns  and  priests 
of  various  orders  has  its  influence  upon  the  entire 
body  of  Catholics  until  that  idea  of  obedience  to 
authority  has  become  a  leading  note  in  their 
religious  life. 

Now  I  might  not  choose  that  for  myself  —  I  am 
frank  to  say  that  I  would  not  —  but  I  am  not  so 
blind  as  to  fail  to  recognize  the  immense  spiritual 
value  it  may  have  in  service  rendered  to  the  King¬ 
dom.  Thank  God  for  the  Roman  Catholic  Church! 
Some  of  its  doctrinal  positions,  —  its  belief  in  the 

146 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


infallibility  of  the  Pope,  in  the  power  of  priestly 
absolution  from  sin,  in  the  idea  of  the  actual 
sacrifice  of  Christ  in  the  service  of  the  Mass,  in  its 
belief  in  the  real  presence  of  the  body  and  blood  of 
our  Lord  in  the  bread  and  wine  of  the  sacrament, 
in  its  conception  of  Purgatory  —  it  would  be  impos¬ 
sible  for  me  to  accept.  I  am  opposed  to  every  sort 
of  encroachment  by  ecclesiastical  authority,  either 
Catholic  or  Protestant,  upon  the  exercise  of  that 
civil  authority  which  in  a  democracy  like  ours 
belongs  to  all  people  alike.  I  am  opposed  to  any 
interference  by  church  authorities  with  the  work 
of  public  education.  But  while  I  differ  with  my 
Catholic  friends  at  many  points  in  my  philosophy 
of  the  State  and  in  my  convictions  touching  theo¬ 
logical  truth,  I  thank  God  for  the  immense  moral 
and  spiritual  influence  of  that  great  church. 

We  have  not  in  these  days  so  many  effective 
moral  forces  in  the  world  that  we  can  afford  to 
think  lightly  or  to  speak  harshly  of  any  of  them. 
When  we  find  a  mighty  organization  exercising  an 
influence,  which  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate,  upon  the 
life  of  the  race,  making  for  reverence  toward  God, 
for  that  righteousness  of  life  which  comes  from 
obedience  to  his  commands  and  for  the  prevalence 
of  spiritual  ideals,  we  may  all  find  here  an  occasion 
for  gratitude. 

The  Catholic  Church  has  at  this  moment  under 
its  care  and  direction  vast  numbers  of  compara¬ 
tively  untaught  people  in  Italy,  in  Spain,  in  Austria, 

147 


The  Larger  Faith 

in  South  America  and  in  Mexico  which  we  as 
Protestants  simply  would  not  know  what  to  do  with 
if  they  were  all  suddenly  to  renounce  their  loyalty 
to  the  Catholic  Church  and  proclaim  themselves 
Protestants.  We  have  here,  in  this  more  enlight¬ 
ened  and  freer  country,  vast  numbers  of  people  in 
our  cities,  who  are  better  cared  for  in  their  present 
state  of  development  and  with  the  temper  it  has 
pleased  God  to  give  them,  under  that  system  which 
teaches  obedience  to  authority,  than  they  would  be 
under  that  mode  of  church  life  which  happens  to 
be  my  own. 

Take  it  in  the  service  it  has  rendered  at  one 
particular  point,  the  matter  of  sobriety!  The 
Catholic  Church  has  not  seen  fit  to  take  official 
action,  as  the  Methodist  Church  and  some  other 
churches  have  done,  throwing  its  entire  influence 
upon  the  side  of  the  prohibition  of  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  intoxicants.  It  has  had  in  its  member¬ 
ship  numbers  of  men  who  were  engaged  directly  or 
indirectly  in  the  liquor  business.  In  most  of  the 
Protestant  Churches  of  America  you  would  find 
none  at  all,  because  such  men  would  be  refused 
membership  unless  they  made  a  change  in  their 
business.  The  Catholic  Church  in  the  United 
States  has  in  its  membership  great  numbers  of 
people  who  grew  up  in  foreign  lands  where  the 
whole  custom  of  using  alcoholic  drinks  as  a  beverage 
is  very  different  from  the  custom  which  has  pre¬ 
vailed  among  most  of  the  church  people  in  this  land. 

148 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


It  is  responsible  for  those  people  who  are  under  its 
care,  to  be  guided  into  something  better. 

But  it  has  in  its  priesthood  any  number  of  men 
who  by  virtue  of  that  habit  of  obedience  to  author¬ 
ity  have  rendered  a  great  service  for  good  in  the 
lives  of  rough  men  and  women  to  whom  intemper¬ 
ance  is  a  real  peril.  In  my  last  parish  my  near 
neighbor  and  good  friend  Father  McNally  of  St. 
Patrick’s  Church,  was  an  active,  enthusiastic 
member  of  the  Father  Matthew  Total  Abstinence 
Society.  He  went  about  among  his  people,  brought 
up  many  of  them  under  very  different  surroundings 
from  those  which  I  have  known  from  my  childhood, 
urging  upon  them  by  precept  and  by  personal 
example  the  Christian  duty  of  abstinence  from  the 
use  of  intoxicants.  He  accomplished  in  hundreds  of 
cases  what  no  Protestant  clergyman  could  ever 
have  accomplished  under  the  conditions  where  he 
worked.  This  has  to  do  with  but  a  single  virtue. 
In  keeping  alive  also  the  sense  of  a  world  unseen, 
in  promoting  the  feeling  of  moral  obligation,  in 
causing  men  to  know  that  there  is  open  to  us  all  a 
definite  source  of  help  to  aid  us  in  our  struggle,  the 
unique  authority  of  the  parish  priest  among  his 
people  has  a  value  which  we  would  be  sorry  to 
lose  from  the  moral  forces  of  the  community. 

In  mediaeval  times  it  was  this  spiritual  authority 
of  the  Catholic  Church  which  alone  showed  itself 
mighty  enough  to  subdue  the  turbulent  elements 
in  society,  to  put  a  certain  check  upon  military 

149 


The  Larger  Faith 

tyrants  and  to  infuse  something  of  the  spirit  of 
mercy  into  those  who  would  otherwise  have  been 
the  ruthless  oppressors  of  their  weaker  fellows. 
And  today  in  great  sections  of  our  modern  world 
the  same  work  is  being  done  in  other  terms  and 
under  other  conditions  —  spiritual  authority  holds 
in  check  certain  evil  forces  before  which  less  auto¬ 
cratic  methods  might  find  themselves  helpless. 

In  these  three  directions  particularly  one  can  see 
this  power  at  work:  it  sets  itself  over  against  that 
materialism  which  is  no  closet  theory  but  a  base 
mode  of  life;  it  sets  itself  against  the  revolutionary 
type  of  social  agitation  which  would  burn  and  slay 
in  order  to  gain  its  ends;  it  sets  itself  against  the 
spirit  of  unrestrained  self-indulgence,  a  wild  and 
reckless  Bohemianism  which  fears  neither  God,  nor 
man,  nor  devil.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church 
stands  with  a  brave  front  lifting  up  before  the 
people  in  picture  and  in  statue,  in  anthem  and  in 
prayer,  in  public  sermon  and  in  the  words  of  the 
private  confessor,  the  nobler  ideals  of  the  Son  of 
God.  We  are  not  far  enough  along  toward  the 
Millennium  to  wish  to  break  in  pieces  that  vessel  of 
honor  even  though,  to  some  people,  it  may  seem  to 
contain  so  much  of  wood  and  of  earth.  The  gold 
and  the  silver  of  precious  spiritual  influence  are 
there. 

The  length  to  which  this  spirit  of  obedience 
will  go  almost  passes  our  Protestant  belief.  The 
story  of  the  Jesuits,  that  powerful  Order  founded 

150 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


by  Ignatius  Loyola,  reads  like  a  romance.  The 
spiritual  forces  of  Protestantism  have  been 
likened  by  one  writer  to  “  local  militia,  useful 
for  defence  in  case  of  invasion,  but  incapable  of 
being  sent  abroad  for  the  purpose  of  spiritual 
conquest.”  Rome  has  her  militia  in  a  vast  number 
of  ordinary  parish  priests  in  all  lands,  but  she  also 
has  her  standing  army,  made  up  of  forces  ready  at 
a  moment’s  notice  to  be  sent  upon  any  foreign 
service  however  distant  or  disagreeable  or  danger¬ 
ous. 

If  it  is  believed  at  headquarters  that  a  certain 
Jesuit  father  in  England  or  America  would,  be¬ 
cause  of  his  talents  or  character,  be  particularly 
useful  among  the  Hottentots  of  Africa  or  the 
Bushmen  of  Australia,  or  the  Eskimos  of  the  frozen 
north,  the  next  week  he  will  be  found  sailing  to  that 
quarter  of  the  world,  the  next  month  he  will  be 
preaching,  catechizing  and  saying  Mass  among 
those  same  surroundings.  The  Roman  Catholic 
Church  develops  that  spirit  of  obedience  to  author¬ 
ity  which  is  at  once  a  menace  where  it  is  unworthily 
used,  or  a  mighty  prophecy  of  spiritual  achieve¬ 
ment  where  it  is  directed  to  worthy  ends.  “  What¬ 
soever  he  saith  unto  you  do  it  ”  —  this  was  the 
word  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  our  Lord,  to  the  ser¬ 
vants  at  the  wedding  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  It  is  in 
that  atmosphere  of  prompt  and  unquestioning 
obedience  that  water  is  turned  into  wine. 


The  Larger  Faith 


III 

The  third  contribution  made  by  the  Catholic 
Church  lies  in  its  promotion  of  the  spirit  of  trust  in 
the  unseen.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  meets 
the  human  soul  at  the  very  threshold  of  its  earthly 
experience  and  offers  to  provide  some  satisfying 
measure  of  spiritual  direction  for  every  crisis. 
This  is  the  meaning  of  its  seven  sacraments,  where 
the  Protestant  Churches  have  but  two. 

Here  is  Baptism  for  the  new-born  babe,  the 
stated  recognition  of  his  spiritual  kinship  with  a 
great  body  of  aspiring  souls  in  the  Church,  and  of 
his  kinship  with  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Spirit, 
into  whose  triune  name  the  child  is  baptized. 

Here  is  Confirmation  for  the  child  when  he 
reaches  the  age  of  personal,  moral  decision  and  is 
ready  to  stand  before  the  world  as  a  professing 
Christian,  prepared  to  take  his  first  communion. 

Here  is  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper,  the 
bread  and  the  wine  transformed,  as  they  believe, 
by  the  words  of  consecration  into  the  veritable 
body  and  blood  of  the  Saviour  so  that  the  inner 
life  of  the  communicant  may  feed  upon  Him  and 
become  like  Him. 

Here  is  Penance,  where  the  soul  in  the  confes¬ 
sional  relieves  itself  by  breathing  the  story  of  its 
moral  failure  into  the  ear  of  a  trusted  and  merciful 
friend,  gaining  for  itself,  through  the  assurance  of 
human  forgiveness  an  added  confidence  in  the  di- 

152 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


vine  forgiveness,  and  having  prescribed  for  it  certain 
acts  of  devotion  or  of  service  to  be  rendered  as  an 
offset  to  the  wrong  done. 

Here  is  the  sacrament  of  Orders,  the  formal 
setting  apart  of  a  man  to  a  life  of  religious  devo¬ 
tion,  that  he  may  become  a  leader,  a  priest  and  a 
mediator  of  spiritual  values  to  his  needy  fellows. 

Here  is  Marriage,  the  union  in  the  name  of  God 
of  one  man  and  one  woman  for  life;  and  all  honor 
to  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  for  its  steadfast 
and  consistent  opposition  to  the  inroads  which 
hasty  and  easy  divorce  has  made  upon  the  sanctity 
and  the  integrity  of  the  home!  The  Catholic 
Church  regards  marriage  as  an  earthly  copy  of  the 
mystical  union  between  Christ  and  His  Church. 

Here  at  the  very  end  of  one’s  career  is  Extreme 
Unction,  where  the  soul  is  finally  prepared  for  its 
solemn  and  mysterious  journey  into  the  unseen 
world. 

Now  all  these  seven  sacraments  become  to  the 
devout  Catholic,  outward  and  visible  signs  of  an 
inward  and  spiritual  grace.  At  all  the  important 
crises  of  his  life  and  touching  all  its  more  vital  inter¬ 
ests,  the  church  places  before  him  these  symbols 
of  an  unseen  economy  of  divine  mercy  and  help. 
By  the  perpetual  recurrence  of  these  rites  in  the 
appointments  of  his  church,  the  believer  may  be 
maintained  in  that  attitude  of  trust  which  gives  him 
peace. 

In  these  practical  days  when  so  many  people  are 

153 


The  Larger  Faith 


inclined  to  believe  only  in  those  things  which  can 
be  seen  with  the  eyes,  handled  with  the  hands,  or 
purchased  with  money,  when  the  things  that  are 
seen  and  temporal  so  often  expel  from  our  vision 
those  unseen  things  which  are  eternal,  it  is  good 
for  one  branch  of  the  Church  steadily  to  inculcate 
by  methods  which  have  shown  themselves  effective, 
an  abiding  trust  in  those  intangible  aids  which 
mean  so  much  in  the  gaining  of  that  more  abundant 
life  to  which  we  are  called. 

No  other  church  has  made  so  much  of  that 
supreme  manifestation  of  the  divine  mercy  toward 
sinful  men  witnessed  on  Calvary.  The  Catholics 
go  to  Mass.  Good  Catholics  make  all  manner  of 
sacrifices  and  subject  themselves  to  all  sorts  of 
inconvenience  rather  than  refrain  from  going  to 
Mass  at  least  once  every  week.  The  Mass  is  a 
visible  enactment  and  repetition  of  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  on  Calvary,  according  to  their  belief, 
offered  in  atonement  for  man’s  sin.  These  worship¬ 
pers  go  there  to  commemorate  afresh  the  death  of 
the  Son  of  God  and  to  confide  afresh  in  the  great 
mystery  of  divine  redemption  there  proclaimed. 
On  every  altar  and  in  many  a  Catholic  home  there 
is  the  Crucifix.  The  Stations  of  the  Cross  (those 
pictures  which  are  found  in  every  Catholic  church), 
indicate  the  stages  in  Christ’s  progress  from  the 
judgment  hall  of  Pilate  to  Calvary.  Now  the  divine 
mercy  revealed  on  Calvary  may  be  to  the  Jews  a 
stumbling-block  and  to  the  Greeks  foolishness, 

154 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


but  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every¬ 
one  who  trusts.  The  Roman  Catholic  Church  has 
made  a  most  important  contribution  to  “The  Larger 
Faith”  by  its  promotion  of  the  feeling  of  trust  in  the 
great  fundamental  offers  of  the  Christian  gospel. 

IV 

The  fourth  contribution  it  has  made  lies  in  the 
marvelous  readiness  of  its  faithful  members  for 
sacrifice.  This  fine  quality  of  life  is  present  in  all 
Christian  churches  but  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
can  show  an  unusual  measure  of  it.  It  faces  every 
man  toward  the  demand  for  a  sacrificial  life. 

The  Pope  has  a  palace.  He  lives  in  the  Vatican 
at  Rome,  which  is  a  spacious  building,  containing, 
we  are  told,  more  than  ten  thousand  rooms.  These 
rooms  are  filled  with  the  treasures  of  art,  with  great 
libraries  of  books,  and  with  the  necessary  appoint¬ 
ments  for  the  physical  comfort  of  a  large  household, 
but  the  Pope  has  no  home. 

The  priests  have  their  clergy  houses  but  not  a 
man  among  them  has  a  home.  It  takes  a  woman, 
a  wife  and  a  mother  with  her  children  to  make  a 
home.  And  ruling  out  the  unfaithful  priests  to  be 
found,  alas,  in  every  branch  of  the  Church,  there 
is  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  a  great  body  of 
pure  and  true  men  who  have  surrendered  the  hope 
of  all  these  joys  that  they  might  give  themselves  in 
sacrificial  fashion  to  the  service  to  which  they  are 
called. 


155 


The  Larger  Faith 


It  is  the  very  jewel  and  crown  of  a  woman’s  life 
to  love  and  to  be  loved  by  her  husband  and  children, 
to  busy  herself  with  the  furnishing  and  the  ordering 
of  a  home.  But  here  is  a  vast  company  of  sweet¬ 
faced,  quiet- voiced,  pure-hearted  women  sur¬ 
rendering  all  that  for  the  sake  of  the  service  to 
which  they  give  themselves.  Sisters  of  Charity, 
Sisters  of  Mercy,  Little  Sisters  of  the  Poor,  and  all 
the  rest!  Here  they  are,  the  teachers  of  youth,  the 
friends  of  the  aged  and  the  helpless,  the  faithful 
nurses  of  the  sick  and  the  sympathetic  helpers  of 
the  outcast!  Like  the  Son  of  Man,  they  go  about 
doing  good. 

We  see  them  daily  on  the  streets  of  every  city  in 
Christendom.  Whenever  I  pass  two  of  them,  I 
feel  like  lifting  my  hat.  Here  they  are,  the  mes¬ 
sengers  of  the  divine  purpose  in  sacrificial  service! 
They  are  the  followers  of  Him  who  came,  not  to  be 
ministered  to  but  to  minister  and  to  give  His  life 
for  the  ransom  of  many. 

Have  you  ever  read  Francis  Parkman’s  histories, 
with  his  account  of  the  work  of  those  early  Jesuit 
fathers  among  the  Indians  of  our  own  country, 
and  of  Canada?  Have  you  read  the  story  of  Father 
Damien,  among  the  poor  lepers  of  Hawaii,  upon  the 
Island  of  Molokai?  Have  you  read  the  record  of 
Pere  Marquette’s  work  among  the  red  men  in  the 
Northwest  and  of  Junapero  Serra  among  the 
Indians  in  California?  The  noble  self-sacrifice  of  it 
has  written  a  record  that  brings  again  before  us  the 

156 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 

moral  heroism  of  Apostolic  Christianity.  “  I,  if  I 
be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me,”  said  One  who  knew  what  was  in  man,  and 
needed  not  that  others  should  tell  him.  It  was  his 
own  sober  estimate  upon  the  power  of  sincere  love 
for  the  souls  of  men  and  of  the  habit  of  uncom¬ 
plaining  sacrifice  on  their  behalf.  Whatever  may 
be  one’s  feeling  touching  some  of  the  beliefs  and 
some  of  the  forms  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 
we  will  all  agree  that  it  has  made  a  splendid  show¬ 
ing  in  that  heroic  and  beautiful  self-sacrifice  which 
suffereth  long  and  is  kind,  which  beareth  all  things, 
believeth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth 
all  things. 

I  write  as  a  Protestant  minister,  but  I  am  sure 
that  I  voice  the  sentiments  of  hundreds  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  my  fellow  Protestants  when  I  say  that  we 
would  like  to  cultivate  closer  and  more  friendly 
relations  with  this  ancient  and  far-reaching  branch 
of  Christ’s  Church.  They  are  our  brethren  in  the 
Lord.  Both  they  and  we  are  striving  for  the  coming 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  which  means  the 
sway  and  rule  of  the  divine  Spirit  of  righteousness, 
peace  and  joy,  in  all  the  affairs  of  men.  I  am  confi¬ 
dent  that  the  pastor  of  many  a  Protestant  church 
would  be  happy  to  welcome  to  his  pulpit  one  of  the 
faithful  priests  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  to 
speak  to  his  people  the  words  of  eternal  life.  He  in 
turn  would  be  glad  to  speak  in  any  Catholic 
Church  to  which  he  might  be  invited,  not  to  change 

157 


The  Larger  Faith 


the  Catholics  into  Protestants,  but  to  help  them 
by  his  message  to  be  more  faithful  and  useful  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  church  of  their  choice. 

We  are  glad  that  in  this  land  of  freedom  and 
democracy  the  relations  in  many  communities 
between  the  Catholics  and  Protestants  are  to  such 
an  extent  filled  with  the  spirit  of  our  common  Mas¬ 
ter.  The  influence  of  such  broad-minded  Catholics 
as  the  late  Cardinal  Gibbons  of  Baltimore,  and 
Archbishop  Ireland  of  Minnesota,  and  other  men 
of  like  spirit,  has  aided  greatly  in  this  happier 
relation.  May  their  number  increase!  We  are 
all  grateful  for  the  habit  of  worship  and  for  the 
spirit  of  obedience  to  rightful  authority,  for  the 
sense  of  trust  in  the  unseen,  and  for  the  capacity  for 
self-sacrifice  which  this  great  church  has  contrib¬ 
uted  in  generous  measure  to  our  larger  faith. 

The  Catholic  Church  has  been  imperial  in  its 
ambitions  and  in  its  methods,  as  would  befit  an 
organization  which  heads  up  in  Rome.  I  covet 
for  this  larger  faith,  made  up  of  the  varied  contribu¬ 
tions  of  these  many  branches  of  Christ’s  Church, 
that  same  imperialism.  Not  that  I  would  see  the 
State  or  the  public  school,  the  home  or  the  place 
of  trade  ruled  by  any  ecclesiastical  organization. 
God  forbid!  But  I  would  that  all  these  institutions 
should  be  brought  into  obedience  to  the  spirit  of 
Him  who  is  the  Head  of  all  the  Churches.  Would 
God  that  all  these  churches  in  their  several  ways 
might  set  themselves,  not  to  the  mere  saving  of 

158 


The  Roman  Catholic  Church 


privileged  souls  from  the  general  moral  wreck! 
Would  God  that  they  might  set  themselves  to 
the  great  task  of  the  moral  renewal  of  man’s  entire 
life  in  its  social,  economic  and  political  relations! 
All  these  kingdoms  of  human  interest  and  action 
must  some  time  become  kingdoms  of  that  mode  of 
life  for  which  Christ  stood.  It  is  for  us  all  to  take 
hold  together  “  in  the  unity  of  the  spirit  and  in 
the  bond  of  peace  ”  to  achieve  that  sublime  result. 


159 


THE  UNITARIAN  CHURCH 


Chapter  IX 


The  Unitarian  Church 

The  doctrine  of  “  the  Unity  of  God  ”  is  much 
older  than  William  Ellery  Channing.  It  is  much 
older  than  the  Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century  who 
stood  up  to  resist  the  stout  orthodoxy  of  Athan¬ 
asius  in  the  Council  of  Nicea.  Abraham,  Isaac 
and  Jacob,  Moses,  David  and  Isaiah  were  all 
Unitarians  in  their  thought  of  God.  The  vast 
Moslem  world,  whose  faith  at  its  inception  was 
a  vigorous  protest  against  the  weak  idolatry  of  the 
Orient,  is  to  this  hour  a  world  of  Unitarians  — 
“  There  is  no  God  but  Allah,  and  Mahomet  is  His 
prophet.”  We  find  a  multitude  of  Old  Testament 
saints,  of  Moslem  believers  and  of  thoughtful  men 
in  all  periods  of  religious  history,  who  would  stand 
together  in  saying,  “  To  us,  there  is  but  one  God, 
the  Father.” 

But  Unitarianism  in  its  more  restricted  sense, 
as  applied  to  a  certain  branch  of  the  Christian 
Church,  dates  back  in  this  country  to  about  the 
year  1815.  Early  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  a  very 
considerable  group  of  Congregational  churches  in 
New  England  separated  themselves  from  the 
Orthodox  wing  of  the  denomination  which  still  held 
to  the  general  system  of  belief  known  as  “  Evan¬ 
gelical.”  In  Boston  every  Congregational  church 
except  the  “  Old  South  ”  joined  in  this  new  depar- 

163 


The  Larger  Faith 


ture.  They  retained  the  Congregational  form  of 
polity  and  in  most  cases  the  historic  names  and  the 
meeting  houses  where  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
worship. 

The  separation  came  as  a  thoughtful,  con¬ 
scientious  reaction  against  some  of  the  excesses 
and  some  of  the  teaching  connected  with  “  the 
Great  Awakening.”  Reason  and  conscience  alike 
protested  against  such  doctrine  as  that  found  in 
Jonathan  Edwards’  terrible  sermon  on  “  Sinners 
in  the  Hands  of  an  Angry  God.”  The  time  was 
ripe  for  some  radical  modification  of  the  religious 
teaching  which  had  become  traditional  with  the 
orthodoxy  of  New  England  and  the  Unitarian 
movement  was  the  clearest  and  most  influential 
expression  of  that  demand. 

The  liberal  party  was  not  large  numerically. 
The  Unitarian  denomination  today  is  still  one  of  the 
smaller  sects.  It  is  a  party  to  be  weighed  rather 
than  counted.  But  it  has  registered  a  profound 
and  wholesome  impress  upon  the  religious  belief, 
upon  the  literature,  upon  the  philanthropy  and 
upon  the  civic  purposes  of  the  Nation.  No  one 
who  understands  its  early  history  and  the  real 
quality  of  the  men  who  gave  direction  to  its  develop¬ 
ment  in  those  days  will  speak  slightingly  of  the 
Unitarian  Church. 

I 

The  main  contributions  which  it  has  made  to 

164 


The  Unitarian  Church 


our  total  Christianity  seem  to  me  to  be,  First,  its 
steady  insistence  upon  a  reasonable  faith!  In  those 
early  days  when  the  most  rigorous  form  of  Calvin¬ 
ism  was  to  the  fore  the  Unitarian  movement  had 
also  its  “  five  points,”  but  very  different  points 
they  were  from  the  five  points  of  Calvinism. 

1.  It  stood  for  the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God. 
“  To  us,  there  is  but  one  God,  the  Father,”  they 
said,  and  all  these  legal,  forensic,  mediatorial 
schemes  of  salvation  must  either  square  themselves 
with  that  fundamental  fact  or  they  must  stand 
aside. 

2.  It  stood  for  the  real  humanity  of  Christ.  In 
their  insistence  upon  his  divinity  the  orthodox 
party  had  at  times  obscured  the  fact  that  whatever 
else  Christ  may  be,  He  was  a  man,  born  of  a  woman, 
tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  subject  to 
the  laws  of  growth,  of  pain  and  of  death.  The 
Unitarian  stood  for  the  actual  humanity  of  Christ, 
not  a  mask,  nor  a  pretense,  but  a  genuine  humanity 
which  tasted  the  human  situation  to  the  full  for 
every  man. 

3.  It  insisted  on  the  religious  function  of  history, 
not  only  Hebrew  history,  but  all  history,  as  a 
revelation  of  God.  The  Unitarians  boldly  affirmed 
that  God  has  not  left  himself  without  witness  in 
any  land  or  in  any  age. 

4.  It  placed  the  Bible  at  the  center  of  a  vaster 
revelation  of  the  mind  of  the  Lord  through  litera¬ 
ture  —  the  relation  of  the  Bible  to  other  books  of 


The  Larger  Faith 


spiritual  worth  being  germinal  rather  than  exclu¬ 
sive  of  their  claims  to  some  measure  of  inspiration. 

5.  It  insisted  that  salvation  is  a  moral  process 
conducted  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  lives  of 
thoughtful,  obedient  and  aspiring  men  —  a  moral 
process,  not  a  legal,  mechanical  or  magical  trans¬ 
action,  imputing  man’s  guilt  to  an  atoning  Saviour 
or  imputing  the  righteousness  of  Christ  to  un¬ 
righteous  men  by  some  sort  of  theological  shuffle. 
It  was  a  moral  process  in  which  the  Spirit  of  the 
living  God  utilizes  not  only  dogma  and  sacrament 
but  other  agencies,  as  well,  which  may  contribute 
to  the  development  of  character. 

Here  are  five  points  —  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
the  humanity  of  Jesus,  the  function  of  history  as  a 
revelation  of  God,  the  germinal  relation  of  the 
Bible  to  a  vaster  body  of  sacred  literature  and  the 
conception  of  salvation  as  a  moral  process  —  all 
of  them  reasonable,  all  of  them  scriptural,  all  of 
them  helpful!  They  have  been  so  far  accepted  by 
the  more  intelligent  and  open-minded  branches 
of  the  Church  as  to  seem  to  many  of  us  common¬ 
place,  but  time  was  when  it  cost  many  a  man  the 
affection  and  confidence  of  his  associates  in  Chris¬ 
tian  effort  to  insist  openly  upon  these  five  points  of 
a  reasonable  faith. 

It  was  a  protest  sorely  needed.  The  Unitarians 
stood  out  against  a  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  which 
often  implied  three  distinct  Gods.  They  opposed  a 
view  of  Christ  which  slighted  his  humanity  in  the 

166 


The  Unitarian  Church 


interests  of  a  certain  plan  of  salvation.  They 
condemned  that  narrower  view  of  history  which 
left  great  sections  of  human  interest  outside  the 
pale  of  God’s  love  and  care.  They  put  their 
strength  against  that  conception  of  salvation, 
which  represented  it  as  something  outward,  legal, 
mechanical.  They  refused  to  set  religion  in  con¬ 
flict  with  the  intelligence  and  moral  wealth  of  the 
world  where  these  were  found  not  allying  them¬ 
selves  with  the  theological  positions  of  Calvinism. 
As  George  A.  Gordon  of  the  Old  South  Church, 
Boston,  pointed  out,  their  protest  at  these  points 
was  “  tremendous,  magnificent,  wholesome.”  It 
was  reason  and  conscience  in  such  wise  and  godly 
men  as  Channing  and  Dewey,  Theodore  Parker  and 
James  Freeman  Clarke,  William  C.  Gannett  and 
William  H.  Furness  arraying  themselves  against 
certain  theological  claims  which  were  neither  rea¬ 
sonable  nor  moral. 

It  was  therefore  an  ethical  no  less  than  an  intel¬ 
lectual  protest.  It  would  be  difficult  to  name  two 
men  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  in  whom  the  moral 
sense  was  more  keenly  alive  than  in  William  Ellery 
Channing  and  James  Martineau.  It  was  the 
spiritual  passion  of  their  own  great,  warm  hearts 
which  moved  them  to  defend  the  character  of  God 
against  the  unworthy  implications  put  upon  it  by 
some  of  the  orthodoxy  of  their  day. 

Certain  theories  of  the  Atonement  represented 
God  as  only  allowing  His  anger  against  faulty  men 

167 


The  Larger  Faith 


to  be  appeased  by  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  upon 
whom  the  full  penalty  of  the  guilt  of  the  whole 
world  was  visited  —  it  was  a  frightful  doctrine, 
unwarranted  by  the  teaching  of  the  Four  Gospels. 
The  claim  was  made  that  God  in  determining  from 
all  eternity  by  an  unconditional  election  that  cer¬ 
tain  men  should  be  saved  was  under  no  obligation 
to  respect  our  rights  or  interests  —  this  notion 
seems  to  most  of  us  preposterous.  Read  some  of 
the  current  religious  literature  in  the  last  half  of 
the  Eighteenth  Century  and  you  will  understand 
how  some  of  the  choicest  spirits  this  country  has 
ever  produced  went  out  from  the  larger  orthodox 
body  of  Christian  believers,  impelled  by  reason, 
by  a  truer  knowledge  of  what  the  Bible  actually 
teaches,  and  by  the  impulses  of  their  own  honest 
hearts. 

It  was  a  protest  overdone  in  some  instances  — 
when  the  pendulum  swings  it  often  swings  too  far. 
In  the  minds  of  certain  people  God  the  Father 
became  grandfatherly,  the  thought  of  moral  rigor 
and  disciplinary  purpose  in  His  attitude  toward 
men  was  obscured.  In  some  minds  “  the  dignity 
of  human  nature  ”  was  such  that  man  did  not  need 
a  Saviour,  did  not  need  forgiveness,  renewal,  and 
strengthened  purpose  in  order  to  attain.  To  some 
light-hearted  people  all  literature  was  so  full  of 
what  they  were  pleased  to  term  “  inspiration  ” 
that  it  did  not  matter  whether  men’s  minds  were 
ever  fed  upon  the  great  conceptions  and  aspirations 

1 68 


The  Unitarian  Church 


of  David  and  Isaiah,  of  John  and  Paul,  or  of  our 
Lord  Himself  —  Shelley  and  Walt  Whitman, 
H.  G.  Wells  and  Bernard  Shaw  will  suffice.  These 
friends  speedily  reveal  the  fact  that  they  have  been 
reared  on  spiritual  gruel  altogether  too  thin  to 
make  them  morally  robust. 

But  the  Unitarian  movement  is  not  to  be  judged 
by  its  worst  but  by  the  main  trend  and  drift  of  its 
influence  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century.  It  was,  at  its  inception,  an  emergency 
movement  shaped  up  with  reference  to  the  necessi¬ 
ties  of  a  specific  historic  situation  —  it  has  con¬ 
tinued  in  a  substantial  way  and  it  has  made  good 
its  protest  in  the  more  reasonable  and  more  scrip¬ 
tural  positions  held  today  by  almost  all  of  the 
churches  of  Christ. 

When  we  come  to  view  it  as  a  movement  of 
thought  and  life,  we  find  that  Unitarianism  repre¬ 
sents  not  so  much  a  body  of  churches  as  “an 
individual  way  of  looking  at  the  facts  of  life  and  its 
problems.”  It  is  said  that  “  Boston  is  not  a  place 
on  the  map  —  it  is  a  state  of  mind.”  There  is 
truth  as  well  as  humor  in  that  epigram.  If  some 
sort  of  chemical  analysis  could  detect  the  “  traces  ” 
of  the  wide  influence  of  those  men  and  women 
who  for  the  last  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  have 
been  speaking  and  writing  in  and  around  Boston, 
we  would  all  agree  that  Boston  is  a  very  useful 
“  state  of  mind.”  In  like  manner  Unitarianism  is 
not  so  much  certain  columns  of  figures  in  the  Year 

169 


The  Larger  Faith 


Book  where  religious  statistics  are  compiled  — 
Unitarianism  is  “a  state  of  mind,”  an  individual 
way  of  looking  at  the  problems  of  life  which  is 
characterized  by  reasonableness. 

The  influence  of  this  way  of  looking  at  things 
can  be  discovered  in  the  entire  religious  life  of  this 
nation.  Thousands  of  people  who  once  walked  in 
darkness  have  seen  a  great  light.  Only  a  small 
percentage  of  them  have  been  enrolled  as  Uni¬ 
tarians,  but  the  more  winsome,  reasonable  and 
creditable  message  of  religion,  to  which  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  this  small  denomination  has  so  largely 
contributed,  has  won  their  hearts  to  an  open  alle¬ 
giance  to  Jesus  Christ.  Even  the  Salvation  Army, 
with  its  “  blood  and  fire  ”  methods  and  theology, 
is  a  nobler  institution  today,  because  it  lives  and 
works  in  a  land  where  Emerson  and  Channing, 
Lowell  and  Longfellow  have  spoken  to  the  mind  and 
conscience  of  the  nation. 

The  kingdom  of  heaven  in  some  of  its  manifesta¬ 
tions  is  “  like  the  growth  of  a  grain  of  mustard 
seed,”  an  outward,  visible,  organized  expression 
of  a  finer  quality  of  life.  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
also  “  like  leaven,”  silent,  pervasive,  contagious, 
gradually  leavening  the  whole  lump  and  thereby 
rendering  it  more  palatable  and  useful  in  meeting 
human  need.  The  emphasis  of  the  Unitarian  upon 
the  reasonableness  of  religious  faith  has  been  like 
leaven. 


170 


The  Unitarian  Church 


II 

The  second  contribution  made  by  this  denomina¬ 
tion  lies  in  the  breadth  of  its  culture.  When  it 
claimed  that  all  history  had  a  function  as  a  revela¬ 
tion  from  God,  it  summoned  the  intelligence  of  the 
race  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  all  lands  and  of  all 
ages  as  on  holy  ground,  putting  the  shoes  from  off 
its  feet  as  it  listened  everywhere  for  accents  of  the 
divine  voice.  When  the  Unitarian  insisted  that  the 
Bible  was  preeminently  the  sacred  book,  but  that 
all  literature  worthy  of  the  name  might  have  some 
breath  of  the  divine  and  share  in  that  sacredness, 
he  gave  a  new  impetus  to  the  interest  which 
thoughtful,  devout  men  might  feel  in  the  best  that 
has  been  said  in  literature.  It  has  been  characteris¬ 
tic  of  this  branch  of  the  Church  to  stand  for  a  noble 
breadth  of  culture. 

It  has  produced  men  of  letters  in  numbers  out  of 
all  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  denomination. 
“  Thou  Bethlehem  of  Judea  art  not  least  among  the 
provinces,”  for  out  of  thee  has  come  a  movement  of 
mind  which  has  exercised  a  renewing  influence 
upon  the  thought  of  our  entire  country!  How 
many  of  the  noblest  names  in  our  literature  are  the 
names  of  Unitarians!  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  was 
the  pastor  of  a  Unitarian  church  in  Boston.  Lowell 
and  Longfellow,  Bryant  and  Holmes,  Nathaniel 
Hawthorne,  Frances  Parkman  and  George  Ban¬ 
croft,  William  H.  Prescott,  John  Lothrop  Motley 

171 


The  Larger  Faith 


and  John  Fiske,  Charles  Eliot  Norton  and  Thomas 
Wentworth  Higginson  were  all  Unitarians. 

Lyman  Beecher,  a  war-horse  of  orthodoxy, 
once  said  —  “  All  the  literary  men  of  Massachusetts 
are  Unitarians.  All  the  trustees  and  professors  of 
Harvard  College  are  Unitarians.  All  the  elite  of 
wealth  and  fashion  in  Boston  crowd  the  Unitarian 
churches.”  They  have,  in  the  last  hundred  years, 
produced  a  royal  company  of  seers  and  of  singers 
whose  messages  of  insight  and  uplift  have  made  us 
all  their  debtors.  It  would  be  difficult  to  name  any 
other  single  influence  upon  our  youth,  emanating 
from  an  American  mind,  which  has  counted  more 
or  counted  for  better  things  than  the  writings  of 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson. 

It  was  a  Unitarian  who  founded  the  “  Lowell 
Institute  ”  in  Boston,  an  endowed  lectureship  so 
well  maintained  that  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
lectures  are  offered  free  every  winter,  delivered  by 
eminent  men  in  this  country,  and  oftentimes  by 
men  from  Europe.  In  my  own  college  days  there 
I  heard  James  Russell  Lowell  give  six  lectures  on 
the  “  Early  English  Dramatists.”  I  heard  Richard 
S.  Storrs  lecture  in  his  matchless  way  on  “  Bernard 
of  Clairvaux,”  and  Theodore  Roosevelt  lecture  on 
"  Civic  Reform.”  The  service  of  this  noblv 
endowed  lectureship  to  the  community  can  scarcely 
be  overestimated. 

It  was  a  Unitarian  who  generously  endowed  the 
“  Boston  Symphony  Orchestra,”  which  by  his 

172 


The  Unitarian  Church 


ample  provision  became  the  first  organization  in 
this  country  to  present,  in  a  manner  which  ranks 
with  the  best  in  Europe,  the  great  musical  com¬ 
positions  of  the  masters  of  melody  and  harmony. 

It  was  a  Unitarian  who  founded  “  Cooper 
Institute,”  in  New  York,  which  through  its  popular 
appeal  and  the  variety  of  its  activities  has  become 
one  of  the  most  useful  institutions  in  that  mighty 
city  in  leading  the  thoughts  of  the  plain  people  to 
higher  things.  It  has  been  characteristic  of  the 
Unitarian  denomination  to  stand  for  breadth  of 
culture,  believing  that  into  the  redeemed  life  of  the 
race,  “  the  kings  of  the  earth,”  the  leaders  and 
masters  of  the  higher  human  values,  should  “  bring 
their  glory  and  their  honor  ”  as  into  a  city  that 
lieth  four-square. 

Ill 

The  Unitarian  Church  has  been  conspicuous  for 
its  contribution  of  a  wise  interest  in  philanthropic 
effort.  This  has  been  no  cold-hearted,  technical 
skill  in  dissecting  the  problems  of  poverty  and 
crime,  of  civic  wrong  and  social  injustice.  Some  of 
the  mightiest  of  the  reformers  have  sprung  from 
this  branch  of  Christ’s  Church,  bearing  with  them 
the  moral  passion  no  less  than  the  wise  judgment 
which  belongs  to  this  denomination  at  its  best. 

The  men  and  the  women  who  waged  the  earliest 
battles  for  the  abolition  of  human  slavery  recruited 
their  ranks  in  large  measure  from  the  Unitarian 

173 


The  Larger  Faith 


churches.  Charming  himself,  and  Theodore  Parker, 
who  made  Music  Hall  in  Boston  a  modern  Forum 
for  the  voicing  of  the  public  conscience;  Charles 
Sumner  and  Wendell  Phillips,  Gerritt  Smith, 
Samuel  J.  May,  and  Julia  Ward  Howe  were  all  of 
them  Unitarians. 

In  more  recent  times,  in  dealing  with  vice  and 
crime,  in  meeting  the  demands  which  the  charities 
and  the  corrections  of  the  country  are  making  upon 
brain  and  heart,  there  are  few  more  honored  names 
than  those  of  Edward  Everett  Hale  and  Samuel 
J.  Barrows.  I  was  a  visitor  for  the  Associated 
Charities  in  Boston  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  at 
that  time  more  than  half  the  money  and  a  great 
deal  more  than  half  the  time  and  wisdom  and  love 
spent  in  personal  service  in  that  humane  effort 
came  from  that  denomination,  although  it  is  one  of 
the  smaller  branches  of  the  Christian  Church.  If 
one  should  appraise  the  Christianity  of  any  group 
of  people  by  the  showing  they  make  in  embodying 
in  their  lives  the  spirit  of  the  Good  Samaritan  or  by 
the  standards  named  in  that  judgment  scene  por¬ 
trayed  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  — 
“  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of 
these,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me  ”  —  he  would  find 
the  Unitarians  meeting  that  test  in  satisfying 
measure. 

It  has  been  a  broad-minded  philanthropy.  It 
was  Dr.  Samuel  G.  Howe  who  gave  impetus  and 
direction  to  an  awakening  sentiment  in  Massa- 

174 


The  Unitarian  Church 


chusetts  for  the  more  efficient  care  of  the  blind. 
The  Perkins  Blind  Asylum,  where  Laura  Bridgman 
and  Helen  Keller  received  their  training,  sprang 
out  of  his  efforts.  It  was  Horace  Mann  who  led 
the  way  in  broadening  the  scope  of  education, 
making  it  include  Manual  Training  for  boys. 

It  was  Edwin  D.  Mead  who,  more  than  any  other 
single  man  in  our  country,  aroused  that  sentiment 
which  opposes  increased  armaments  and  urges  the 
reference  of  international  differences  to  properly 
constituted  international  courts  as  a  substitute  for 
the  barbarous,  burdensome  habit  of  war.  It  was 
Charles  F.  Dole  who  was  a  leader  in  the  work  of 
scientific  temperance  agitation,  bringing  to  bear 
upon  the  menacing  evil  of  the  rum  shop,  the  best 
judgment  and  largest  experience  of  the  nation  to 
replace  the  inefficient  and  intemperate  zeal  of 
certain  reformers  who  only  serve  to  cloud  the  issue. 
It  was  George  T.  Angell  who  aroused  the  pity  of  the 
country  for  dumb  animals  and  led  the  movement 
which  resulted  in  the  organization  of  “  a  society  for 
the  prevention  of  cruelty.”  In  every  form  of 
philanthropic  effort  you  will  find  the  intelligent 
heads  and  the  warm  hearts  of  Unitarians  bearing 
an  honorable  part. 

In  civic  affairs  the  Unitarians  have  rendered 
notable  service.  The  people  of  California  will 
never  forget  the  debt  of  gratitude  they  owe  to 
Thomas  Starr  King,  pastor  of  the  First  Unitarian 
Church,  San  Francisco,  for  the  far-reaching  influ- 

175 


The  Larger  Faith 


ence  he  exerted  in  helping  to  save  California  to  the 
Union,  and  enlisting  her  on  the  side  of  the  struggle 
for  the  liberty  of  all  men.  Some  of  the  noblest  men 
we  have  had  in  the  councils  of  our  nation  have  been 
men  of  that  faith  —  Charles  Sumner  and  Senator 
Hoar,  John  Hay,  John  D.  Long,  William  Howard 
Taft,  and  many  others  whose  names  would  fill  a 
worthy  roll  of  honor!  The  movement  for  Civil 
Service  Reform  was  greatly  indebted  for  the 
advancement  of  its  interests  to  individual  members 
of  this  church  and  to  the  organized  utterance  of  the 
church  itself  along  that  line.  George  William  Cur¬ 
tis,  Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson,  Charles  W. 
Eliot,  and  many  another  honored  citizen  stood  up 
to  resist  the  idea  that  “  to  the  victor  belong  the 
spoils  ”  —  they  insisted  that  “  a  public  office  is  a 
public  trust.” 

Piety  and  patriotism  should  go  hand  in  hand. 
When  intelligent  Jews  prayed  for  the  peace  of 
Jerusalem,  they  did  it  both  as  citizens  and  as 
churchmen,  for  Jerusalem  was  the  capital  of  their 
country,  as  well  as  the  site  of  the  temple.  And  in 
the  Unitarian  branch  of  Christ’s  Church  there  has 
been  throughout  an  intelligent  insistence  upon  the 
sacredness  of  civic  life  and  the  importance  of  those 
duties  which  belong  to  citizenship  in  the  Republic. 

“One  God,  the  Father”  —  ours  no  less  than 
theirs!  Many  of  us  cannot  accept  the  estimate 
they  place  upon  the  person  of  Christ,  nor  agree 
with  certain  views  they  hold  touching  other  matters 

176 


The  Unitarian  Church 


which  seem  to  us  vital.  With  all  the  gratitude  I 
feel  for  the  service  they  have  rendered,  I  could  not 
be  a  Unitarian.  But  even  so,  we  may  well  believe 
that  the  agreements  are  more  significant  than  the 
differences.  We  have  been  told  on  the  highest 
authority  that  the  vital  thing  in  religion  is  not  the 
ability  to  say,  “  Lord,  Lord!  ”  but  the  doing  of  the 
will  of  the  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  In  that  day 
many  obedient,  aspiring  souls,  who  have  differed 
widely  in  their  theological  interpretations,  may 
come,  moved  by  one  common  desire  to  live  in  the 
vision  and  service  of  the  highest  they  saw,  to  sit 
down  with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  the 
kingdom  of  God. 


177 


“THE  UNITY  OF  THE  SPIRIT” 


Chapter  X 


“The  Unity  of  the  Spirit” 

In  somewhat  cursory  fashion,  with  no  pretense 
of  thorough,  exhaustive  treatment,  we  have  passed 
in  review  certain  distinctive  contributions  made  by 
these  various  branches  of  the  Church  to  that  larger 
Christianity  in  which  we  all  believe.  We  have  been 
happy  to  find  in  other  denominations  elements  of 
strength  and  points  of  excellence  which  were  not 
equally  conspicuous  in  our  own  denominations. 
We  are  glad  that  these  varied  notes  are  being  struck 
by  men  of  different  moods  and  temperaments,  by 
men  of  different  tradition  and  training,  to  the  end 
that  a  fuller,  richer  volume  of  worship  and  of  service 
may  thereby  become  possible.  Let  each  man  stand 
up  in  his  own  chosen  place  and  say  with  gladness  of 
heart,  “  Other  sheep  He  has  which  are  not  of  my 
fold  —  them  also  He  will  bring,  that  at  last  there 
may  be  one  flock  and  One  Shepherd.” 

We  have  gained  in  these  days  a  generous  supply 
of  “  religious  tolerance”  —  we  are  not  fighting 
our  fellow  Christians  in  other  camps  as  misguided 
men  have  done  in  the  past.  But  tolerance  is  not 
enough.  The  very  word  u  toleration  ”  smacks  of 
offense.  I  am  not  happy  in  having  any  one  “  toler¬ 
ate  ”  me  and  I  should  feel  myself  an  insufferable 

181 


The  Larger  Faith 


prig  were  I  to  assume  an  attitude  of  “  toleration  ” 
toward  any  fellow  Christian.  We  must  have 
insight,  understanding,  appreciation. 

We  can  engage  in  the  pleasant,  harmless  custom 
of  holding  “  Union  Thanksgiving  services  ”  to¬ 
gether  when  the  last  Thursday  in  November  comes 
but  has  the  Twentieth  Century  of  Christian  history 
nothing  better  to  show  in  the  way  of  Christian 
unity  than  that?  We  need  to  exchange  u  the  poor 
charity  of  mutual  forbearance  ”  for  “  the  benign 
consciousness  of  inward  sympathy  and  active 
cooperation.” 

In  the  smaller  communities  in  this  country  the 
struggling  rivalry  of  the  churches  sometimes  crowds 
out  the  usefulness  of  the  Church.  If  we  had  fewer 
churches  we  would  have  more  Church.  As  Dean 
Hodges  once  said,  “  Effective  blows  are  not  struck 
with  extended  fingers,  but  with  the  solid  fist. 
We  may  threaten  the  devil  with  the  Baptist  finger 
or  the  Methodist  finger,  with  the  Roman  Catholic 
finger  or  with  the  Episcopal  thumb,  and  he  faces 
the  assault  with  great  serenity;  but  when  our  total 
Christianity  comes  to  make  an  undivided  assault, 
he  may  be  led  to  meditate  upon  retreat.”  We  may 
in  our  differing  taste  as  to  ritual  and  polity,  in  our 
varying  interpretations  of  the  eternal  mystery, 
be  as  distinct  as  the  fingers  of  the  hand.  But  we 
may  also  in  that  suggestive  and  useful  variety  be 
so  knit  together  and  held  within  the  power  of  a 
common  passion  for  righteousness,  that,  in  a  splen- 

182 


“The  Unity  of  the  Spirit” 

did  “  unity  of  the  Spirit,”  we  shall  go  forth  to 
conquer. 

This  finer  and  firmer  unity  will  not  be  attained 
by  an  arbitrary  suppression  of  differences,  but  by 
the  fuller  development  of  the  distinctive  contribu¬ 
tions  which  each  branch  of  the  Mighty  Vine  of 
Christian  organization  is  making  to  the  aggregate 
result.  “  Sink  deeply  into  the  inmost  life  of  any 
Christian  faith  and  you  will  touch  the  ground  of 
them  all.”  The  city  that  hath  foundations  is 
surrounded  by  walls  great  and  high,  but  they  are 
pierced  by  many  gates  of  entrance,  three  on  every 
side.  When  we  enter  that  city  of  God,  we  shall  find 
that  the  various  guests  of  the  divine  bounty, 
though  fed  at  separate  tables,  have  all  been  fed 
upon  the  same  bread  of  life  and  their  lips  have  all 
been  touched  alike  with  the  same  wine  of  remem¬ 
brance. 

“  There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  men  which  taken 
at  the  flood  leads  on  to  fortune.”  In  that  world¬ 
wide  struggle  for  justice,  for  freedom  and  for  democ¬ 
racy  in  which  we  are  engaged  in  these  strange,  hard 
days,  the  leaders  of  our  Christian  forces  might  well 
discern  the  flood-tide  of  opportunity!  We  see  the 
whole  race  passing  through  a  profound  historical 
transformation.  We  see  the  current  methods  of 
social  and  political  organization  challenged  to 
justify  themselves  by  the  measure  of  well-being 
they  can  show  in  the  lives  of  men.  There  is  opened 
unto  us  everywhere  a  wide  and  effectual  door  for 

183 


The  Larger  Faith 


moral  advance.  In  all  this  we  as  Christians  are 
meant  to  have  a  large  and  honorable  part. 

In  such  a  time  of  stress  it  is  difficult  to  be  patient 
toward  that  spirit  of  sectarianism  which  blocks  the 
way.  The  unity  of  Christendom  seems  of  less 
importance  to  an  ecclesiastical  dyspeptic  than  does 
the  fact  that  he  and  his  wife,  his  son  John  and  his 
wife,  should  be  privileged  to  live  under  a  form  of 
church  polity  and  usage,  constructed  in  strict 
accordance,  as  he  maintains,  with  some  obscure 
passage  (wrongly  interpreted  as  often  as  not)  in 
the  Book  of  Acts.  In  the  presence  of  the  dire  need 
of  the  whole  earth  for  spiritual  direction  at  the 
hands  of  those  forces  for  which  all  the  churches 
profess  to  stand,  many  of  these  petty  differences  in 
theological  theory  and  in  denominational  practice 
become  as  trivial  as  the  fact  that  some  good  men 
have  and  some  good  men  have  not  red  hair.  The 
minister  of  Christ  who  spends  his  time  on  Sunday 
defending  his  own  particular  mode  of  baptism,  or 
expounding  some  notion  of  Biblical  inerrancy  to 
the  discomfiture  of  those  “  higher  critics”  against 
whom  he  thunders,  or  exploiting  some  special  theory 
of  future  punishment,  is  not  even  fiddling  while 
Rome  is  burning.  He  is  not  doing  anything  as 
respectable  as  fiddling.  In  the  presence  of  whole 
continents  on  fire  such  a  waste  of  time  and  of 
sacred  opportunity  is  downright  wicked. 

We  learned,  as  never  before,  in  those  fateful 
years  of  war  how  much  larger  the  local  unit,  the 

184 


“The  Unity  of  the  Spirit” 


national  unit,  or  the  international  unit  must  be 
if  it  would  reach  its  highest  efficiency  in  military 
action.  The  local  militia  held  apart  from  any 
vaster  force  of  resistance  or  attack  showed  itself 
all  but  valueless.  It  took  the  organized  and  disci¬ 
plined  forces  of  whole  nations  banded  together  and 
acting  in  concert  to  achieve  the  necessary  ends. 
How  much  longer  will  it  take  for  the  children  of 
light  to  realize  that  the  local  and  the  national  units 
in  that  vaster,  nobler  Army  of  God  must  likewise 
be  made  larger  if  they  would  win? 

Christianity  is  not  today  the  mighty  cable  it  was 
meant  to  be,  binding  the  nations  to  the  Throne  of 
God.  It  has  been  frayed  out  into  so  many  strands 
that  no  single  thread  or  group  of  threads  has  in  it 
the  necessary  fiber  for  the  strain  which  that  high 
task  would  impose.  We  are  not  in  our  several 
communities,  nor  in  the  nation  as  a  whole,  in  a 
position  to  furnish  that  competent  and  impressive 
moral  leadership  which  the  complex  life  of  this 
modern  world  sorely  demands. 

We  need  above  all  else,  save  only  the  gracious 
enduement  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  wise  and  patient 
leadership  which  will  federate  these  scattered  forms 
of  effort  into  an  imposing  and  achieving  unity. 
We  need  the  firm  grasp  of  mighty  leaders  —  not 
Bismarcks,  who  by  sheer  strength  of  the  churchly 
equivalents  of  “  blood  and  iron  ”  might  weld  these 
rival  states  of  denominational  life  into  an  empire 
strong  enough  to  defy  the  world.  The  mind  of  Von 

185 


The  Larger  Faith 


Moltke  was  not  the  mind  of  the  Master.  We  need 
rather  religious  statesmen  with  the  temper  and 
skill  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  who  “  with  malice  toward 
none,  with  charity  for  all,  with  firmness  in  the  right 
as  God  gives  them  to  see  the  right,”  will  guide  these 
sectarian  states  out  of  their  rivalries  into  that 
willing  cooperation  which  would  produce  an 
imperishable  republic  of  God.  That  would  be 
Christian  union  indeed,  and  that  type  of  union 
would  hasten  immeasurably  the  coming  of  that 
Kingdom  in  which  all  Christians  believe. 

The  stronger  metals  can  only  be  welded  together 
or  moulded  into  nobler  forms  when  they  are  at 
white  heat.  When  the  metal  is  cold  it  resists  and 
breaks.  In  like  manner  there  are  human  institu¬ 
tions,  vast  and  weighty,  which  can  only  be  recast 
when  the  material  out  of  which  they  are  formed  has 
been  brought  to  white  heat.  In  these  grave  times 
when  the  whole  world  is  in  the  crucible,  may  it  not 
be  that  God  is  calling  upon  us  for  a  new  alignment, 
a  better  formation  and  a  more  complete  mobiliza¬ 
tion  of  all  our  spiritual  forces  for  the  great  task  of 
world  redemption?  The  dire  need  is  summoning 
all  the  members  of  the  body  of  Christ  to  show  that 
they  are  one  body  in  Christ,  ready  to  act  together 
in  a  finer  concert  of  power. 

We  have  so  often  associated  the  word  “  Catholic” 
with  the  Roman  adjective  that  multitudes  of 
unthinking  Protestants  are  afraid  of  it.  Would 
that  it  might  be  recovered  to  its  rightful  use 

1 86 


“The  Unity  of  the  Spirit” 


throughout  the  world!  “  I  believe  in  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church  ”  and  I  belong  to  it.  I  pray  for 
the  gathering  up  of  all  these  fragments  of  the  body 
of  Christ  into  the  Holy  Catholic  Church. 

It  doth  not  yet  appear  what  form  this  Christian 
unity  shall  take.  No  one  can  say  just  how  this 
comprehensive  action  of  our  Christian  forces  may 
be  secured.  Personally  I  do  not  believe  that  it  will 
come  by  an  amalgamation  of  all  the  religious  bodies 
of  the  world  into  one  vast,  all-embracing  ecclesi¬ 
astical  organization.  The  unity  of  Christendom 
will  not  be  outward  and  mechanical  —  it  will  be 
“  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.” 
But  we  know  that  in  proportion  as  He  appears  in 
all  our  corporate  religious  life,  the  net  result  will 
be  like  Him. 

These  are  wonderful  years  and  there  is  much  to 
be  done.  The  world  has  been  torn  to  pieces  by  a 
great  disaster  —  it  will  have  to  be  rebuilt  and  built 
better  than  it  was  before  the  War.  Let  Christianity 
stand  up  straight  —  the  ceiling  is  high!  Let  it 
make  bare  its  arms  —  there  is  hard  work  ahead! 
Let  its  eyes  sweep  the  whole  horizon  —  the  field  of 
opportunity  is  the  world!  Let  it  make  bold  to 
attempt  the  moral  renewal  of  the  life  of  the  race 
nothing  less  than  that  will  satisfy  Him  whom  we 
serve!  Let  it  go  forward  in  “  the  unity  of  the 
Spirit  ”  to  write  chapters  in  its  future  more  glorious 
than  any  in  its  past! 


187 


The  Larger  Faith 


“  Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul, 

As  the  swift  seasons  roll! 

Leave  thy  low- vaulted  past! 

Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 
Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast, 
Till  thou  at  length  art  free, 

Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell  by  life’s  unresting 


APPENDIX 


Appendix 

When  the  substance  of  these  chapters  was  used 
in  a  series  of  evening  addresses  in  the  United 
Church  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  the  three 
hymns  sung  at  each  service  were  selected  from 
hymn  writers  belonging  to  the  particular  denomina¬ 
tion  to  be  considered  that  evening. 

It  is  an  interesting  and  significant  fact  for  the 
cause  of  Christian  unity  that  these  many  hymns, 
written  by  members  of  these  different  communions, 
were  all  contained  in  the  Hymnal,  “  In  Excelsis,” 
in  use  in  the  church  where  the  addresses  were 
given  —  as  indeed  they  would  be  found  in  almost 
any  standard  hymnal.  Doctrinal  discussions  may 
divide  us,  but  we  all  come  together  in  prayer  and  in 
praise. 

The  list  of  these  various  hymns  may  be  of 
interest  to  those  who  read  this  book.  It  does  not 
contain  any  hymns  written  by  the  “  Disciples  of 
Christ.”  Excellent  hymns  have  been  written  by 
members  of  this  communion  but  being  more  recent 
it  did  not  chance  that  they  were  included  in  the 
Hymnal  in  use  at  that  time  in  United  Church. 


The  Larger  Faith 

BAPTIST. 

Softly  fades  the  twilight  ray. 

I  need  Thee  every  hour. 

Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds. 

CONGREGATIONAL. 

My  faith  looks  up  to  Thee. 

I  love  thy  kingdom,  Lord. 

O  Master,  let  me  walk  with  Thee. 

EPISCOPAL. 

O  Little  town  of  Bethlehem. 

The  Church’s  one  foundation. 

For  all  the  saints  who  from  their  labors  rest. 

LUTHERAN. 

A  mighty  Fortress  is  Our  God. 

O  Sacred  Head,  now  wounded. 

Now  thank  we  all  our  God. 

METHODIST. 

Love  divine,  all  love  excelling. 

Jesus,  Lover  of  my  soul. 

A  charge  to  keep  I  have. 

PRESBYTERIAN. 

I  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus  say. 

Go  labor  on,  spend  and  be  spent. 

Stand  up,  stand  up  for  Jesus. 


192 


Appendix 


ROMAN  CATHOLIC. 

Lead,  Kindly  Light. 

Jesus,  Thou  joy  of  loving  hearts. 
Jerusalem  the  golden. 

UNITARIAN. 

Lord  of  all  being,  throned  afar. 
In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  glory. 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee. 


193 


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